We had a wonderful dinner with the owners and winemaker Jim Fresquez & Susan Meyer of RustRidge Winery, Ranch, and Bed & Breakfast in Chiles Valley of Napa Valley, California!
We thoroughly enjoyed their company and fantastic wines. We definitely look forward to seeing them again in the future as well.
There were a total of 20 people seated for the wine dinner with reservations. There were approximately 10 more people hoping to get a seat at the dinner and waitlisted. Those that showed up without a seat were provided tastes by Lynn of Redoux Wines at their tables in the main dining area. This made us think that we should increase the available seats, but hold them on Sundays in the main dining area–since the Yellow Rose is closed to the public on Sundays now.
Each course went very well to the point that there was little to say about the dinner and much more to say about the wine. That was why we were there, to enjoy the wine. The dishes were all simply to accent the wines. It’s often nice to enjoy an elaborate dish with an elaborate wine. In the case of RustRidge, the grapes are all cared for, harvested, and then woven into a very complex and fantastic wine by hand, by the same family and the same people that we had dinner with. The grapes are all sustainably grown and dry-farmed and with that bring those flavors to the wine. Added to that, RustRidge wines are smaller batch productions. Volumes just don’t exist to meet with grocer’s demand, and thus these wines only show up in restaurants and specialty boutique wine shops. This is the reason these wine shops are so important to us as well–because some of the best wines just won’t be found in the volume grocer or big retail beer/wine/liquor stores–unless those wines have very large estates or source their grapes from smaller producers like RustRidge.
We hope that this wine dinner was a great experience for everyone. We have had several inquiries into our next dinner, which isn’t in the books yet. But we are always looking at plans for what will be next.
Most of all, we wanted to thank Jim & Susan and all of our guests for making it a wonderful dinner. Because when it comes down to it, while the wine and food were great, it is your friends and family that make any meal truly enjoyable. In our case, it was absolutely fantastic–and we owe that to you.
Also… Thank You again to Lynn and Redoux Wines for all of the great photos below! These can also be seen on Redoux Wines’ Facebook page.
For any inquiries into joining our future wine dinners (or whiskey dinners), please join our mailing list.
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