September 27, 2023 Lunch - Santa Fe Chili and Wine festival

 September 27, 2023 Lunch - Santa Fe Chili and Wine festival 

Today was like a continuation of our trip.

Suzette went to work and I worked in the morning.

I ate the leftover Miso Noodle soup for breakfast around 10:00.

Jody replaced the converter battery in the Prius.

Suzette returned home at 1:00 and ate the leftover ravioli from last night’s dinner.

Then at 1:30 we drove to Costco for gas and the the the Santa Fe Convention Center for the Chili and Wine Festival to  the trade tasting.

This is an annual event we try to attend every year because it is so much fun.

The convention center’ main ballroom is filled with a large food bar in the center hosted by Nobel Sysco filled with desserts, canapés/tapas, fruit cheeses, charcuterie, and a slicing station serving roasted beef, pork shank and pork shoulder.

Then on both sides of that huge table that fills about a ten foot wide by 40 foot space in the width of the ballroom are arranged in two circles and along the walls tables were about 150 wineries and smaller importers pouring their wines.

These were not the best wines, that occurs tomorrow at the Reserve Tasting.  These are generally the more moderately priced wines they think retailers and restaurants will buy.

A good example is Suzette, who owns a restaurant that serves wine. She was looking for a northern style white wine, preferably Gewertztraiminir, for her German meal next month and several Spanish wines for the Bistro’s Spanish meals in November and December, especially a nice moderately priced Cava.

We wandered the aisles past the collections of wines at each table tasting ones that appealed to us for about 45 minutes and when we met again near the food table around 4:00 we went to the food table. We went to the carving end where one man was carving beef and the other pork we both also tried a canapé titled Salmon Wellington, which was a round roll stuffed with salmon and a cream sauce that was very tasty. We then both took slices of roast beef, pork loin, and pork shank and found a table pouring red wine. I found a nice French Beaujolais. We took our small plates to one of the four round elevated tables where we could stand and use both hands to tear the meat into pieces with the plastic fork provided.

We then toured tables on the other side of the hall and I tasted the Chianti Riserva at Banfi and their lovely Pinot noir from California. I take pictures of my favorites.  Here they are: Justin’s wonderful Justification Cab, a nice Albariño we missed in Galicia, the Balverne Sauvignon Blanc with its nutty finish, and the best Barolo of this tasting for me.

We tasted for another twenty minutes and returned to the food table and tried cheeses. I made ate a slice of white light farmer’s cheese on a slice of bread with a slice of red meat that turned out to be spicy ham.

Suzette took a loaf of rosemary bread and two heirloom tomatoes from the food display for our next BLT and we left at around 4:55 just as they were beginning to announce the “thank you for coming” message.

We have gone to this tasting for many years and know that all the food will be thrown out after the event, so taking it was no loss to Nobel Sysco.

We validated the parking ticket and returned to the car and drove to the Outpost Jazz Club.

We arrived at the Outpost Performance Space around 6:15 and took the handicapped parking spot. We were a little hungry, so we tore off a piece of bread and found it densely seasoned with dried rosemary to the point of being overwhelming but fresh and very satisfying.   

We then waited at the door with one other person until a couple of minutes after 6:30 when the doors for the Sullivan Fortner Trio performance that we had bought tickets for while in Spain.

I went to the front row and took the two seats on the left with a view of the keyboard.  More about this location on this Saturday’s blog with regard to the symphony.

We were tired and rested and read until the show began.  There were none of the usual drinks and snacks because of Covid.

Sullivan Fortner was a fabulous pianist and his drummer and bassist were wonderful also. They placed a loose rapid almost barrelhouse style of jazz from 7:45 to 9:45.

Suzette dozed during part of the performance and I had trouble keeping my eyes open.

So when the concert ended we drove home and went to bed.

Today was a day when I planned the two meals I ate.

We relied on the food and wine at the wine tasting that we are very familiar with for dinner.

Bon Appetit