How about a Taste of Monterey?
Lisa of Tasti-Pairings went with a friend to look into a few wineries in the Monterey area and also visited a Beer Festival to see if we wanted to branch into giving Beer and Food pairings a chance. We didn’t have enough time to wine taste and beer taste in one day, so there will be another visit to Monterey some time in the near future.
The Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay Area is extremely beautiful and has a lots of great Seafood in which to sample and enjoy. There were a number of wineries and a few breweries to visit, but expecting to get a lot done in one day turned out to be impossible. There was too much to take in, so expect to give yourself a few days and experience many different places and a number of different takes on wine.
A Taste of Monterey Tasting Room located and nestled at Cannery Row in downtown Monterey, overlooks the Monterey Bay and drenches one’s eyes in great views. With hospitable hosts/hostess we were lead through a selection of wines stocked from larger wineries whom they represented, as well as a number of wines from smaller wineries in which this was their sole tasting room.
Monterey is known for their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. There were a number of contenders offered in these varietals which were good, since both wines paired nicely with seafood (seafood is so fresh in Monterey). We tried two Chardonnays that where very much opposite of each other. Morgan Winery – Metallico aged in steel, had a sharp acidic palate that may pair nicely with a citrus salad, but definitely aimed for a different person than us. The other Chardonnay, Manzoni, was aged in French oak for the entire time and felt more balanced and pure. Overall we knew there had to be a good middle ground but we didn’t have enough time to find it among the large selection.
In the land of the reds, there were many; for an area known for its Pinot Noir, it seems we chose the wrong ones to try. They are definitely trying new things and coming up with new ways to package Pinot Noir, yet it didn’t taste like the North Coast / Wine Country Pinot Noir we had come to love. Though we decided not to try it, the color of the Ronan Zinfandel seemed much lighter then we expected a Zinfandel to be. Then we came across wines by Mission Trail, including a Garnacha which tasted like it would of really been good with some Stone Crab and a tasty Malbec which cried for a BBQ Steak. (Note keep a cheesecloth filter handy as that winery tended to have more sediments in their wine.)
I ended the tasting by asking for a tasting of their local port. I know that Patrick would of asked for a report on it since he was weaned on Grahams Downey and Prager Port… I also have become a lover of well made port. That said, they have talent in the area, which isn’t surprising as Coppola makes its sweet Sofia Riesling in the same area, but its a definite different taste. They put their own spin on it and its not bad, just different. I had the Pot Belly Port which was A Taste of Monterey Wine Club favorite and I understood why. Well fortified, it had a nice fruity taste that paired well with chocolate and I could see it paired with Chocolate Mousse or similar. It’s not a Port you would pair with cheesecake.
As for the Beer Festival, that was a waste. Not that pairing beer with food isn’t a great idea. The fact they had hundreds of different brewers in the same area was a great idea, but the low cost made for too many people and sampling was really impossible. I think we’ll be visiting a few different breweries and doing the same thing with the breweries that we’ve done with wineries down the road.
The positive is that I did find that Kona Brewing Longboard Lager paired extremely nicely with a Lobster Ravioli that was covered in Bay Shrimp and Garlic Sauce at Bocci’s in Santa Cruz.
