There was a buzz in the other room, and a wafting smell of shellfish and rice. It was the third annual paella cook-off at Berryessa Gap Winery, and it was already under way.
The beautiful drive on a late Saturday afternoon was the perfect setting to a great evening. Once inside we were warmly greeted at the door and led into the huge storage cellar where the festivities were already under way. From a sangria competition to tapas served all over, the party was off to a great start.
My favorite, though not the winner of the Sangria competition, was a wonderful jalapeno and savory spiced-styled one nicknamed "man-gria," as it was so robust in flavor. The competition was exciting as it involved using all the same wine varietal, and the interesting part came with what went in it, and who was making it. The winner of the competition, with a beautifully sweet mulberry-flavored sangria, was Head of Wine Sales Clint Crow.
Along with all the tapas being served, there was a full tasting of all the wines Berryessa Gap offers throughout the cellar room. My personal favorites are the 2008 Tempranillo, 2007 Petite Syrah, and a yet-to-be-released 2008 Durif (seriously outstanding) this is an interesting and exciting grape as it's also known as Petite Sirah, but this is not to be confused with Petite Syrah (which is another varietal they offer).
Along with the wine tasting, we got an exclusive winery tour with Mike Anderson of the facilities. This gave us a wonderful insight into how they make their wine (a great deal of precision and labor intensive techniques to control the highest quality), to their crush machines (the same barrel-style crusher used 2,000 years ago).
While the judges (including myself) were doing the back-breaking job of figuring out which was the best of the best, the winery staff was serving portions to all the guests from the huge paella pans.
Shown is the other part of the "dynamic duo" Valarie Crow, of Bay Area Sales for Berryessa Gap
One of the beautiful paellas served: mussels, clams, peppers, prawns and rice, cooked with squid ink (which is what makes it black). It had a beautiful shellfish flavor, but the rice was slightly undercooked.
One of the more traditional paellas, this one was full of saffron, peppers, mussels, clams, scallops and roasted chicken legs.
And the winner is...harder to discern than I originally thought, because the tasting was blind, and when the winners were announced, we didn't know if it was our first, second or third choice.
But the first-place winner was Gloria, the most traditional and savory of the bunch – her paella team cooked a dish with perfectly cooked scallops, mussels, clams, prawns, peppers and Chorizo sausage, and it was all well-seasoned with saffron and garlic – but she wouldn't tell us more (secret recipe!)
After all the fanfare was done and the pans put away, the cast and crew that made the whole night possible sat down and shared a bottle (or a couple) of wonderful wine and celebrated the evening's success.
From Anderson's ability to talk about all the nuances of winemaking, Crow's wealth of insider Sacramento food and wine knowledge, getting a chance to meet new faces and personalities, and drink with old friends, this was a huge success and makes a wine that I've always been a supporter of (local, approachable and great tasting), even more valuable to me as I now know the story of how it's made and the people involved who make it great.
All the wine has been drunk, and the night is over – signing off!
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