Some of the wineries, winemakers, and topics we have covered over the years for Wine Tributaries often find their way as links on other wine sites. We decided to include some as a way to pay tribute to the wines and people who who have shaped the wine industry. The Sonona County Showcase is one such event that really shows the spirit of giving back to the commnity.

A Wine Showcase to Sink Your Teeth Into
by Tim Hayes & John Koetzner

The Sonoma County Showcase of Wine and Food has taken a bold new stride by taking out the “auction mode” and moving into culinary creativity. The organizers of the showcase took a step forward in eliminating the live auction portion of their showcase in an effort to generate greater exposure for Sonoma County instead of trying only to promote its wines. Make no mistake though, there were still ample opportunities to bid on some wine at the barrel auction and at the silent auction with Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger and anti-poverty charity organization, as one of the beneficiaries.

Held July 14 to 17, the 1999 Showcase featured a who’s who of celebrity chefs, including local talents such as Barbara Hom of Night Owl Catering, Kathleen Berman of Mixx, Lisa Hemenway and Michele Ann Jordan just to name a few. Long renowned for its fine wines, Sonoma County has also established itself as a leader in Northern California for cutting edge gastronomic inspiration.

On Wednesday July 14, the festivities kicked off with the “Warm Welcome Party” held at Kendall Jackson Wine Center. Over 400 people ambled through Kendall Jackson’s Wine Sensory Gardens sipping on fine wines, while enjoying the opportunity to smell and taste assorted vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers that are used as descriptors when attempting to define the characters of specific wines. This was a wonderful introduction to the Wine Showcase's inspired food and wine pairings.

For Thursday, participants embarked on a series of viticultural appellation tours, gourmet luncheons and a golf tournament. The evening portion featured small intimate dinners hosted by various wineries where guests rubbed elbows with the vintners and chefs, and more often than not, they sipped fine rare vintages of library wines that have been paired with inspired dishes.

Friday evening's dinners barrel auction and barrel auction were once again concerted so bidders could bid and watch the action from either site. Café Lolo provided a sumptuous four-course meal starting with a chilled lobster salad at Clos du Bois, while at the other end of the county Sonoma Mission Inn catered a grand buffet at Buena Vista that included grilled quail and numerous seafood selections. Amidst all the dining, Hewlett-Packard volunteers made the bidding easy, entering the data with laptop computers and making bids hit the large screen televisions almost instantly in the electronic auction.

At Buena Vista, Brent Farris, KZST's morning man, acted as emcee and urged those feasting to check out their bids before they were knocked out of the running for some of the rarer wines. One such lot was the Zinners of Dry Creek Valley barrel that consisted of Zinfandel from Alderbrook, Deux Amis, Dry Creek Vineyards, Ferrari-Carano Winery, Forchini Vineyards & Winery, Gallo of Sonoma, Lake Sonoma Winery, Lambert Bridge Winery, Mazzocco Vineyards, Meeker Vineyards, Pedroncelli Winery, Preston Vineyards, and Quivira Vineyards.

With the opportunity to create masterpiece dishes from freshly harvested farmers markets and other Sonoma Select ingredients, guest celebrity chefs were able to put on a Sonoma County Showcase event that was gratifying grazing for Saturday's "Tastes of Sonoma County" at Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard. Included in the line-up of talent were such luminaries as Susan Goss (of Zinfandel in Chicago), Michael Symon (Wine & Food Magazine's Best New Chef for 1998), Tim McKee (of La Belle Vie in Stillwater, Minnesota), Johnny Earles (of Criolla's in Grayton Beach, Florida), and many more nationally recognized chefs.
Mojo Baby Lobster prepared by Johnny Earles was just one of the appetizers that combined rich flavors and made you want to go back for seconds. For simpler but just as tasty fare, Liberty Duck from Petaluma was paired next to Jordan's Cabernet Sauvignon.

While there were bigger wine producers such as Gallo of Sonoma paired with a number of foods on Saturday, small local producers had a chance to be in the spotlight too such as Sapphire Hill, which has a Russian River Valley Chardonnay with excellent fruit.

After sauntering from tent to tent for all these tempting tastes, and checking out the silent auction action, we also spied a table where many of the chefs contributed recipes to a cookbook called the 1999 Sonoma County Showcase Collection. We picked up a copy so that we could try preparing some of the exciting food and wine pairings that were suggested by the likes of Matanzas Creek Winery's Eric Leonard and Jordan Winery's Thomas Oden as well as many of the national chefs who participated in the event.

The climax for all the eating and tasting came with the San Francisco Symphony's Saturday evening performance at Sonoma-Cutrer Winery. Jeffrey Kahane conducted, leading the symphony through majestic recitations of Rhapsody in Blue and Pictures at an Exhibition. Box lunches from Park Avenue Catering added to the picnic atmosphere, and the fireworks finale was as breathtaking as the music.

By changing the focus for the 1999 Sonoma County Showcase, the Sonoma County Wineries Association has proved that Sonoma County's bounty is more than wine-- it's the agriculture, it's the place, and it's the people. These ingredients are what make Sonoma County a world class destination. Based on this year's success, next year's event will certainly sell out tickets early. We recommend that you don't miss it.