The Mendocino Crab & Wine Days festival is a great event in that you’re eating local Dungeness crab and drinking local Mendocino County wines with it.  I tasted many of them as a component of the wine competition for the Crab & Wine Days event.  The same five judges in the the crab cake cook-off sipped and spit 48 wine entries.  Our mission:  choose the wine best paired with pure crab meat.

In the blind tasting lineup there were only white wines, except for one sparkling Rose.  Lots of Chardonnays were entered, but many were over-oaked or butter bombs.  The top three wines were #1 Graziano Chenin Blanc; #2 Navarro Vineyards Gewurztraminer; #3 Yorkville Cellars Sauvignon Blanc.

At the public crab and wine tasting, my favorite discoveries were the wines from Toulouse Vineyards, and the wines from Elke Vineyards. I almost don’t want to tell you about Toulouse because he’s a small producer and he sells out quickly.  Owner/winemaker Vern Boltz is a character, as I found out at his tasting room.  Loved the Gewurtz and both his Pinots — the reserve just rocks!  Please save a few bottles for me!

Mary Elke was one of the few vintners pouring a pink wine, a Rose of Pinot Noir.  I just loved it, lots of strawberry fruit character.  Her Chardonnay is unoaked and fabulous, clean, crisp and fruit-forward.  Love those unoaked Chards!

A People’s Choice award was also given for wine.  It’s not an apples to apples with the judges; we tasted the wine with just crab meat, while the people tasted wine with crab cakes.  Also the public vote was for best overall winery, not just one wine.  The choices were #1 Toulouse Vineyards; #2 McNab Ridge Winery; #3 Maple Creek Winery.  All are worth seeking out either online or through your local wine merchant.

On Sunday night my cookbook club took on the challenge of making dishes out of famed wine country chef Thomas Keller’s series of cookbooks. We divided up into teams of two and each made one course of a plated, sit-down dinner (usually everything’s served buffet-style.)

We feasted on 6 courses, made from The French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc at Home cookbooks. At the end of the meal, we all agreed that while everything was delicious, the time involved — 8 hours for a quiche (Bouchon) 3 days for French onion soup (Bouchon) — was way more than we’d ever want to do on a regular basis. But we sure did gain an appreciation and understanding of why Keller’s restaurants are so darn expensive! To us, the Ad Hoc cookbook was the most approachable with recipes that aren’t as time consuming or complicated. Notice no one attempted anything out of the French Laundry cookbook. It’s beautiful to look at though – great food porn!

Our menu:

Green bean and potato salad with Iberico ham. Recipe also calls for figs, but they aren’t in season. From Ad Hoc at Home.
Keller suggests pairing this with a Riesling, and the 2007 Werner Schwicher Annaberg Rielsling Kabinett was a fine match.

Soup a l’oignon (French onion soup). Paired with a 2006 Sonnet Pinot Noir. From Bouchon.

Maine lobster rolls (yum!). Paired with a Landmark Sonoma Co. Chardonnay or a Mer Soleil Chardonnay. From Ad Hoc at Home. I’ve had these lobster rolls at the restaurant, and these turned out just as good!

Leek bread pudding. From Ad Hoc at Home.

Roquefort and leek quiche. From Bouchon.

Tarte au citron (lemon tart). This was my contribution to the feast. Filling was very easy to make, but the dough came out dry. I used meyer lemons. From Bouchon.

Brownies with caramel sauce. The sauce was divine! From Ad Hoc at Home.