On Saturday, November 10th we welcomed a small group of wine lovers to Doffo Winery for an intimate evening of fine culinary creations and some very special Doffo wines. Our annual Winemaker’s Dinner is our most extravagant event of the year as it brings together fine dining, fine wine, and a unique opportunity to break bread with the Doffo family.
As a family owned and operated winery, we Doffos can usually be found in one of the tasting rooms or hard at work elsewhere on the winery grounds. It’s easy to get carried away in the daily operations, so all of us look forward to special events like the Winemaker’s Dinner where we can relax and get some one-on-one time with our club members and fans. So we were pleased to see some familiar faces of longtime wine club members, but even more excited to see new faces of members we had not had the opportunity to meet!
This year’s Dinner was held in the MotoBarrel Room, which always makes for a fun backdrop. With vintage motorcycles on the walls and barrels of aging wine all around, a few dozen guests made their way to their tables where they met their neighbors and enjoyed their first tastes. This year, we served a vertical tasting of our Zinfandel Reserve, beginning with our 2009. Zinfandels are not typically designed for decades of aging like some other varietals and blends, but I must say that we were all blown away by the 2009 and 2010. Even going on a decade, both of these were delicious and showed no signs of passing their prime.
After enjoying our Thai shrimp satay and pulled pork tostada courses, it was on to the heavier hitters. The third course was lamb lollipops with arugula pesto and fried garlic, and this was accompanied by our 2011 Zinfandel Reserve. This was an amazing combination, and if your mouth is watering you’re in luck, because we happen to have some of this very special wine still available through the Tasting Room. Stop by or call to order yours!
Next up was a plate of beef short ribs with demi braised pearl onions and potato gnocchi. Served with our 2012 Zinfandel Reserve, this was hands down the family favorite on the night. With our Italian roots, you could say that the Doffos are gnocchi fanatics. Damian even stood up to share a family story about our tradition of eating gnocchi together on the 29th of every month. We put a $1 bill under our plates, but Damian wasn’t sure why this was part of it. One of our members, Davida, was able to find out on her phone and tell us that it was an old Italian tradition carried to Argentina by Italian immigrants.
No meal would be complete without dessert, and so a dark chocolate molten cake with berry coulis and creme chantilly topped it all off. This course was paired with our yet-to-be-released 2013 Zinfandel Reserve. This wine will not be available until 2019, but guests at this dinner were treated to the first tastes of this exciting new wine.
We’d like to thank Temecula Catering for their wonderful creations, as well as everyone who joined us for a lovely evening of food and wine! We can’t wait to do it again next year!
Salute!
Samantha Doffo
