 One of my Charles' wine vendors keeps inviting us to events. It's terrific that he thinks of us and gives us the opportunity to do enjoyable, wine related type things. It's just been a tough year for extracurricular activities -- work and family matters taking priority over things we might find fun.
Saturday, we decided that it was high time for a treat, so we went to work early and then went to the Festival. Wine and food went as follows: Avanguardia Wine with food from Carpe Vino, Baumbach with Max's, Chatom Vineyards with Cafe Delicias, Truckee River Winery, Secret Ravine with Old Town Dessert Cafe, Vina Castellano with Bootlegger's, Vintner's Cellar with Awful Annies, Naggiar Vineyards with Latitudes, Fawnridge, and Pilot Peak with Club Car. We, obviously, tried wine at each of the places we stopped. We didn't eat at every location. Sometimes the lines were just too long to attempt it, others just didn't look that appealing. Carpe Vino made a kick-ass pumpkin soup with vanilla brown butter. It made me feel all soft and squishy when I sipped it. Awful Annies served us a seafood chowder that was to die for, and Bootlegger's had a shrimp dish that was the perfect amount of decadent as well as a cheese and prosciutto plate that was scrumptious. It was interesting to discover that the Nevada County wineries tended to be better than their Placer County counterparts. I don't think it was just because we're more acquainted with the Nevada County wines. They seemed more polished, mature, and had a better sense of self. Of the new wines tried, Vina Castellano and Fawnridge were the big winners. We were the most impressed with Fawnridge. (They were the only winery that was graced with one of my Charles' business cards.) Their Chardonnay had a touch of Orange Muscat that gave it a lovely, unique flavor, and their red table wine was a pleasure. After all of that wine, (we tried two to three wines at each location) we needed an actual meal. We stopped at our Auburn standby, the Auburn Alehouse for some tasty pub food. It didn't disappoint. We both opted for the Alehouse Brisket with fries. Man, their fries are tasty! Their menu describes the Alehouse Brisket as a "slow smoked Angus beef served with sautéed onions, our Old Town Brown BBQ sauce, and house slaw on a garlic-grilled French roll." Their slaw is pretty groovy too. Plus, the portions were large enough, we had leftovers for lunch on Sunday. |