Skip to main content

Sugar Land Wine and Food Affair


The Sugar Land Wine & Food Affair took place at various venues throughout Sugar Land last week. While I did not attend the On the Rocks Bartender Challenge, the Scotch Whisky tasting, the Churrasco Chef dinner or the Sommelier Secrets Lecture, I did have the opportunity to attend all three of the big weekend events.

Friday night, The Grand Tasting took place in the Town Square Marriot Ballroom. The room was packed with party-goers tasting the many special Chefs' creations while sampling the wide assortment of wines from around the world. One of my favorite tastes of the night was the elk carpaccio created by Vail, Colorado Chef Kelly Liken which I washed down with some Malbec made by Ryan Levy pictured at right, the winemaker for Nice Winery.

The festivities continued on Saturday afternoon at the more casual Sip & Stroll held on the Imperial Sugar property. The Houston Blues Brothers performed outside on the patio while guests strolled through the historic buildings where food and wine options were abundant. For best bite of the day, I was torn between the shrimp salad roll by Houston's own Randy Evans of Haven and the lobster roll by Shanna and Brian O'Hea from the Kennebunk Inn in Maine, both of which I personally enjoyed with a glass of Cava. In addition to the many wine selections, the iced tea was flowing freely and the Mint Juleps from Maker's Mark were a crowd favorite.

The final event was the International Bistro Brunch held in Sugar Land Town Square with food and wine pairings from around the world. People were lining up well before the 11:00 am start time in anticipation of what was to come. Salsa music was being played on the steps of City Hall as guests strolled in to try the many offerings. The line was long at both the Bloody Mary booth and the Paella stand. Lots of sparkling wine and cold beer were on hand to cool you down but the weather was absolutely beautiful and everyone seemed to enjoy the day.
As the saying goes, Life is certainly sweet in Sugar Land!








Cremant de Limoux

Paella & Albarino




Local Salsa & Bloody Mary Mix

Kingfisher Indian Beer

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lust Zinfandel 2007

     My husband loves this wine so he purchased quite a few bottles at a recent Michael~David  dinner that we had attended. Last night, I decided to open a bottle to serve with dinner. I was making a roasted southwestern pork tenderloin, sweet potato fries (w/ chipolte ketchup) and a salad consisting of baby lettuce (fresh from my garden) with strawberries, red bell peppers, red onions and walnuts tossed with a white balsamic-raspberry vinaigrette.      This turned out to be a great pairing. It is a bold wine that really stood up to the strong chipolte seasoning while complementing the fruit flavors. I opened the bottle a 1/2 hour before I served it as I have found this wine to be more enjoyable when I do so.      The Lust Zinfandel by Michael~David 2007  was a dark purple color with a ruby rim. It has intense aromas of very ripe mixed berries and baking spices-both allspice and ginger with hints of cedar. It has flavors of creme de cassis, milk chocolate and also more of the baking

Nocera - A Native Grape from Sicily

Nocera is a native grape from Sicily. It comes from the Messina province which is located in the northeast. Nocera is a quality red wine grape that is most known as a blender in the red wines of the Faro DOC. I had the opportunity to taste some pure versions (which according to Wine Searcher are rare) this week at a trade tasting held at Roma Restaurant in Houston. Wine production in the region dates back to the 14th Century BC, however, phylloxera decimated the vineyard area in 1881 leaving it at a fraction of its original size. The area boasts a Mediterranean climate with sunny days and coastal breezes, moderate rainfall, and mild winters, all ideal for grape growing. The Nocera grape is a bluish/black color and has a thick skin which allows for the production of structured wines with prominent tannins which are balanced by good acidity. High alcohol is common. Red wines produced from the grapes are an intense ruby color with purple highlights and aromas and flavors of dark fruits a

The Salta Tour 2012

Vine Connections and Pioneer Wine Company hosted a seminar and tasting event for Houston's wine trade and media at Backstreet Cafe yesterday. All but two of the wines were from the Salta Province of Argentina. Salta is the most northern wine region in Argentina lying close to the Bolivian border. The climate is very extreme due to the high altitude.  Plantings start at 5,000 feet above sea level and climb to 9,000 feet, making these vineyards the highest in the world. The intense sunlight the area receives helps to create grapes with more anthocyanins, these are the color pigments which result in softer tannins, lower astringency and more intense flavor. The wines produced are extremely pure, concentrated and terroir specific. Torrontes Riojano which is considered the best of the three Torrontes clones is the most widely planted grape with plantings of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat increasing. The seminar started with a tasting of four Torrontes wines, three from diff