Earth, Wind, Air, Fire, and Wine

Ok, for those of you who always tell me you would love to join me at a wine event, I am excited to announce that there’s a big one coming up that you’re going to love!

My Friend Brian VonEggers from the Wildhorse Plateau contacted me several months ago and asked me what I thought about doing a big gala event at the Plateau. My response was nothing but pure excitement.

For those of you who are familiar with the Plateau, you know that Brian and his staff have created a fantastic menu, brilliant wine list, and nothing short of incredible service that makes you want to keep coming back. For those of you who don’t know about Wildhorse Resort’s fine dining, all I can say is you are missing out.

A few weeks ago my cell phone rang as I was walking around Prosser’s Wine Village with friends. Brian wanted to know my opinion on a 9 course meal with famed winemakers Gilles Nicault of Long Shadows, and Marie-Eve Gilla from Forgeron Cellars. All I could think was “This is going to be incredible”.

I’ve written quite extensively about Forgeron wines in the past, however I honestly haven’t spent much time focused on the wines of Long Shadows. Why? Because they frankly aren’t easy to acquire. Long Shadows is a consortium of world class micro wineries developed by wine industry leader Allen Shoup. Each wine produced by Long Shadows is independently grown, pressed, and blended by a single winemaker of world renown.

Gilles Nicault is one of those renowned winemakers at Long Shadows. His wine, the Chester-Kidder Cabernet Sauvignon Blend, is consistently rated over 90 points by all of the industry wine magazines year after year.

Gilles and Marie-Eve are both passionate about wines, each, other, and about this region. The couple were classically trained at the University of Avignon, and worked in Cotes-du-Rhone and Champagne before moving to Washington to produce some of the world’s best wines.

The menu, based on the elements Earth, Wind, Air, and Fire will showcase artisan cheeses, fruits, vegetables, and meats grown locally. Here are just a few samplings from the menu that I received:

From the Earth Element comes a salad of Pea Shoots, Joe Daugherty Porcini Mushrooms, Locati Farms Asparagus, and raspberries, served with Long Shadows Poet’s Leap Riesling.

The Earth and Water Element is combined to create a soup make from Finely Farms Roasted Carrot Ginger, Caramelized Pearl Onion, Monteillett Fromagerie Cheve, served with Long Shadows Sequel Syrah.

The Water Element offers a seafood course of fruits of the sea carpaccio, deconstructed puttenesca, served with Forgeron Zinfandel.

The Air Element will be a poultry course of honey glazed squab, roasted corn risotto, tarragon peas, served with Forgeron Roussane.

The entrée course will combine the Earth and Fire elements with an apple wood grilled buffalo ribeye, rosemary root vegetables from Finely Farms, Double Demi, Shaved Pecorrino served with Long Shadows Chester Kidder Cabernet Sauvignon Blend.

As I mentioned, the meal is a total of nine courses, complete with perfected wine pairings. If you are interested in attending the event, I strongly suggest calling the Plateau right away for available seating at 541-966-1610 . The dinner will be held on Sunday June 6th, starting at 4 p.m..

I look forward to seeing you there!