May 21, 2022 Lunch - At Pinot Fest wine tasting. Dinner - Boonville Hotel Wine dinner

May 21, 2022 Lunch - At Pinot Fest wine tasting. Dinner - Boonville Hotel Wine dinner

This was another fantastic day.

We started by walking the Farmer’s Market in Ukiah and then we drove the two blocks to Schaft’s Bakery.  Suzette ordered coffee and I ordered orange juice and a toasted everything bagel spread with cream cheese.

  We carried our food to the Grace-Hudson Museum and the Sun House.  The Museum featured a paper exhibition, Pulped Under Pressure.  The Museum features the esprit of Grace Hudson and her collection of Pomo Indian baskets.  Next to the museum is the Sun House, a craftsman style redwood bungalow the Hudson’s built in 1911.

We ate our breakfast at a bench in the garden of the Museum and then viewed the exhibits.

We then drove to Anderson Valley to Schrauffenburger Cellars for the Grand Tasting.  Schraufenburger is now owned by Roederer, the giant French wine company, that also bought Domaine Anderson.

There were two rows of booths of dispensers and food purveyors.

When we walked in I stopped at the first food booth and took a container of duck champagne with French dried cherries.

We drank 20 or 30 Tastes and ate several plates of food in the two hours we were tasting.  My favorite food was Chiappino and crab cakes made without egg white.

When we left the field we drove to Henley Woods State Park.  We were tired and exhausted from drink and food so we took a 30 minute nap.

Then we walked through the woods on a one mile accessible path that was flat and easy for me to walk.  I had forgotten how large the trees in this grove were. There were dozens of monster trees over 30 feet around and over 300 feet tall.

I love Coastal redwoods more than any other tree.  They are so tall and thin that they appear to be a most efficient growing tree.

And they are old. Some are over 2000 years old. 

After our walk we drove to Boonville Hotel at 5:30 for the 6:00 dinner.

This was the second great meal of the trip.  In fact, it was the best meal of the trip.

It was 5 courses paired with Handley Vineyard wines.  I have always liked Handley wines.  It is located next to Roederer, and is family owned and operated.  Last time we came to the Pinot Fest six or seven years ago we attended this dinner and it also featured Handley wines, so I have great memories of this dinner.

This dinner did not disappoint in any respect.

It started with Brut Rose in the garden with small glasses of a creamy avocado soup.  During this period I met Randy, the wine maker, Lulu, the current owner and a Handley daughter and her husband, Scott.

Then we sat down and just as the first course was being served Rick joined us. We met Rick when we would visit the Londers, who owned a winery in Philo, who I met at wine tastings in Albuquerque, where they were originally from. Rick was the Londer’s wine maker who made some great wines.  Rick still makes wine. His company is named Calstar Cellars and he still makes good wine.

I am a member of Rick’s wine club.

Handley Pinot Fest Dinner 

The first official course was my favorite, a fresh Halibut served crudo style with wild ginger, thin radish slices, poached kumquats, rose petals and olive oil. It was served with a lovely recently bottled 2021 Pinot Noir Blanc.  I have found a new way to love raw fish.

The second course was perhaps the most creative dish of the meal, Knights Valley Beef Tartare.  A mound of beef that was hand hacked, not mechanically ground, was served in a bowl garnished with slivered baby asparagus, blanched fiddlehead ferns and seasoned with ground pink peppercorns and juniper berries. The most creative part of this dish was the addition of sliced bing cherries tossed with a small amount of lovage to the bowl.

The tartare was served with small platters filled with strips of warm foccacia and a very flavorful glass of 2018 Roderick Ranch Pinot Noir.

I was gastronomically satiated at this point but there were still three courses.

The third course was interesting. It was a warm salad of Coal Roasted sliced beets served with rehydrated morel mushrooms garnished with fresh basil leaves, charred onions, and flakes of Parmesan cheese.  The dish seemed to be lightly dressed with a reduction of the cooking liquid from the morels.

The warm salad was served with a 2018 RSM Pinot noir grown on a newer vineyard higher

The fourth course was impressive, a whole quail stuffed with fresh diced onion to prevent it from collapsing garnished with a sunflower seed Dukkah (an Egyptian combination of spices and seeds) and marigolds and served on a thick swatch of guajillo chili sauce.

By this time I had dispensed with the niceties of fine dining and tore into the quail with the steak knife provided for this course.  The quail was tender and lovely by itself which was good because the guajillo sauce was rather too spicy for me even though sweetened with honey.

We were poured a library 2015 Estate PN for this course that was lovely but did not deter me from my task of surgically dissecting the quail.

Rick brought a bag of his wines and was serving several along side the Handley wines.  As always, I preferred his 2013 Sanjacamo PN for its complexity and smoothness.

Finally we reached dessert, an understated slice of Cana de Cabra cheese (a semi-soft goat cheese from Murcia region of southern Spain) with puff pastry balls and a dab of Blenheim apricot jam served with glasses of Handley’s wonderful 2014 late harvest Riesling.  The late harvest Riesling was the most memorable part of the PN Dinner we ate five or six years ago.  This time the strongest impression was of the good creative food, especially the first two appetizer courses.  The visions of fresh halibut and beef with those amazing lovage laced fresh bing cherries will last for a long time.

At 8:30 we said good night and drove back over the mountains to UkiaH before the sky darkened to total darkness.

I think I might become a member of Handley’s wine club. All their wnes are solid and several are exceptional like their Late harvest Riesling.

Bon Appetit