Winemaker Clay Mauritson and Chef Charlie Palmer invite you to the Fifth Annual Project Zin event, Saturday, August 15, 2015 - 6:30-9:30pm at Hotel Healdsburg located in the heart of Sonoma wine country. This preeminent wine event will gather 21 of the most sought-after Zinfandels paired with decadent bites from Chef Palmer and other local Sonoma County chefs. All proceeds will benefit the Down Syndrome Association North Bay.
MINGLE with some of the most elite wine producers, Chef Palmer, and top Sonoma County Chefs.
TASTE special creations from Chef Palmer and Chef de Cuisine Andrew Wilson of Dry Creek Kitchen, as well as many others.
PARTAKE in a silent auction including the chance to obtain rare wines, a Tahoe wine weekend getaway, and other exclusive culinary experiences.
SUPPORT a great local cause. Down Syndrome Association North Bay's mission is to promote self-advocacy, raise awareness, support inclusion and enrich the lives of individuals with Down syndrome and their families.
WWW.PROJECTZIN.ORG
ABOUT CHEF CHARLIE PALMER:
Over the years, Palmer combined his creative cooking spirit and flair for business to open eleven notable restaurants across the country, a growing collection of food-forward wine shops and award-winning boutique hotels. But even today, the chef still steps in the kitchen with reinvention on his mind. "Without a doubt, people eat with their eye long before they put fork to food, so I continue to look for a playful yet respectful way to create excitement on the plate."
A frequent guest on NBC's Today Show, Charlie Palmer is also the author of five cookbooks, Remington Camp Cooking (2013), Great American Food (Random House/1996), Charlie Palmer's Casual Cooking (Harper Collins/2001), The Art of Aureole, (Ten Speed Press/2002), and Charlie Palmer's Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen (Melcher Media/2006).
WWW.CHARLIEPALMER.COM
ABOUT WINEMAKER CLAY MAURITSON:
Clay is joined in the cellar by Associate Winemaker Emma Kudritzki and Jesus Garcia, Adrian Reyes, Joe Richards, and Nick Mast as cellar hands bringing 40 years of cellar experience. Together, our team has developed a winemaking process that focuses on small vineyard lot separation and fermentation — last year alone we ushered 68 different lots to maturity before the final blending. This gives us enormous flexibilty, enabling us to pinpoint that perfect Mauritson signature with every varietal, every vintage. Fermentation is typically open-top, punchdowns made by hand, native yeasts employed. The resulting wines might be best described as the perfect expression of each vineyard.
With a little over 270 acres of estate vineyards, we are not only able to source the absolute best of each vintage, we are also able to meticulously follow our passions. For example, when we decided to create a wine in the true porto tradition, we planted four of the “big five” authentic Portuguese varietals then mixed in some Tannat, resulting in our signature “Independence,” a wine that refers to a section of our Rockpile property dating back six generations. As the photo at left shows, we choose winemaking techniques that will best exemplify the wine style and the vineyard. The fruit reigns supreme here...and as Clay often tells visitors to the winery "winemaking is 95% fruit and 5% the winemaker not screwing it up!"
WWW.MAURITSONWINES.COM
MASTER BEER SOMMELIER MARC STROOBANDT HIGHLIGHTS HIS EXPERT GLOBAL BEER CULTURE KNOWLEDGE FOR INTERNATIONAL BEER DAY
Fun Fact: These beers will often be served with the yeast sediment which is left in the bottle and placed next to your glass of beer. You have the choice to pour the yeast sediment into your beer – it’s a personal preference.
German Bock
Fun Fact: Bock beer was a symbol of better times to come and moving away from winter. Back in medieval Germany, monasteries would brew a strong beer for sustenance during their Lenten fasts.
English Bitters
Fun Fact: The bitter style came from brewers who wanted to differentiate these ales from other mild brews - enter pale malts and more hops.
Czech Pilsner
Fun Fact: The birth of Pilsner beer can be traced back to its namesake, the ancient city of Plzen (or Pilsen) which is situated in the western half of the Czech Republic in what was once Czechoslovakia and previously part of the of Bohemian Kingdom. Pilsner beer was first brewed back in the 1840's when the citizens, brewers and maltsters of Plzen formed a brewer's guild and called it the People's Brewery of Pilsen.
Irish Stout
Fun Fact: The Irish are big fans of ordering “rounds.”
Japanese Rice Lager
Fun Fact: Japanese Rice Lagers use rice in addition to barley in the grain mix during the brewing process, which provide fermentable sugars for the yeast that produce alcohol while keeping the beer light in color and body.
ABOUT MARC STROOBANDT
Marc Stroobandt is a leading authority in the art and science of food and beer pairing as a Master Beer Sommelier, taking his unique and entertaining approach across the globe. Stroobandt provides beer training and education, presentations and activations at various outlets in the U.S., such as Food & Wine, All-Star Chef Classic and Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival, and internationally. Stroobandt is an accredited trainer for the BIIAB (British Institute of Innkeeping Awarding Body) and has trained through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, in affiliation with the Beer Academy. He has been named to the Honorary Knighthood in the Order of the Mashing Staff in recognition of his professional expertise and services for the promotion of beer and beer culture.
LETSGRABA.BEER
GREAT MOVIES OPENING THIS WEEKEND AND BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS AND HOPES. FIND OUT WHAT MOVIES ARE WORTH YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. GET SET FOR THE WEEKEND.