Wine Club January Dinner

Kathy Foord

The PebbleCreek Wine Club held its January dinner on Jan. 17 in the Tuscany Ballroom. Our featured winery was Hope Family Wine of Paso Robles, Calif., which recently won the coveted American Winery of the Year Award.

We started our evening with a reception in the Chianti Room where we enjoyed visiting with friends, old and new, while sipping Treana Sauvignon Blanc. We then moved to the Ballroom and after taking our assigned seats were introduced to members of the Kare Bears Board of Directors who were available to attend. They received a $5,000 check from the proceeds from December’s Wine Club Gala Event. The Kare Bears Board President, Tom Meek, expressed the Board’s heartfelt thanks for our continuing donations that make up a large percentage of their operating revenue.

In attendance from Kare Bears was President Tom Meek, 1st Vice President Rochelle Zuckerbrow, 2nd Vice President Maureen Plate, and Treasurer Nancy Dodd. In attendance from the PebbleCreek Wine Club Board was President Jeri Lynne Jones, Vice President Nancy Cushing (coordinator of the December Gala Event), Membership At Large Representative Jack Engelmann, Membership Representative Pat Engelmann, Treasurer Betty Bailey, and Web Master Alan Weitzman.

We were then introduced to the winery representatives from Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits who showed us a very interesting short video on the history of Austin Hope wines, one of the first wineries in Paso Robles. Then on to the food and wine! Treana 2020 Chardonnay accompanied our delicious first course, chilled pesto crusted and cocoa dusted sea scallop surrounded by vanilla bean consomme and accented by bing cherries. Our unique second course was a salad with roasted sweet potato, wild arugula, blackberries, and brown sugar crumble accentuated with pomegranate gastrique. This second course was accompanied by Troublemaker Red wine, likely matched by a “troublemaker” at each table! At least we joked about that at our table. Between courses, several raffle tickets were drawn, each winning bottles of various Hope Family wines. And, as always, all profits from the raffle ticket sales go to Kare Bears.

Course three was a previously specified choice of cast iron seared center cut NY strip steak with buttered fingerling potatoes, charred scallions, and brown butter. The alternate choices were vegetarian or sous vide black tea rubbed airline chicken breast served with white bean and Tasso ham and braised leeks with an espresso demi-glace. The choices for this magnificent course were equally enjoyed at our table, accompanied by the star wine of the evening, Austin Hope 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon.

The final course of the evening was met with rave reviews! Even though we were stuffed, we couldn’t resist the fabulous dessert—triple berry tart with vanilla bean whipped cream and garnished with shaved chocolate. This fine dessert was even better with the accompanying Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon. No one was in a hurry to leave while we savored the remnants of our wine, dessert, and camaraderie!