For any young person with aspirations to host dinner parties, pairing food with wine can be a challenge. Fortunately, the Taste of Santa Barbara wine and food festival provided opportunities to learn from experts.
It was a cool Thursday night in historic Old Town Santa Barbara when my journey towards soiree enlightenment commenced. As the entryway of the Margerum Tasting Room became filled with well-dressed guests, I overheard a man at the bar counter say, “I’m just here for a quick one,” while motioning to a glass of Margerum Estate Vineyard White. As more people trickled in for the sold-out “Chef’s Night Out” event, he revealed that he is a local who works in the wine industry. “A quick one” in Santa Barbara apparently means a glass of wine.
In examining some of the events that took place during Taste of Santa Barbara, food with ambiance was at the forefront of the week. The Margerum Tasting Room has a very cozy and intimate atmosphere. Paired with local food, the event produced a warm, welcoming environment for guests.
While I sat with my notepad out, a man came rushing down the stairs that led to the upper room. It was the star of the night: Chef Ramon Velazquez. Chef Velazquez created many hyperlocal pairings that intertwined bold Mexican flavors with dry Santa Barbara wines. Some can argue that anything can be a wine pairing as long as you enjoy drinking wine with a certain food. Others argue that there is a science involved. Chef Velazquez paired his five-course menu specifically to the wines on offer that evening. In addition, the ingredients he chose to incorporate into his dishes were seasonal and came from local farmers markets. I noted that Chef Velazquez worked backwards, choosing dishes that would fit with the flavor profile of the wine rather than letting the food dictate the pairing.
As I spoke with Chef Velazquez, a man came up and shook his hand; this was Doug Margerum, owner and founder of his eponymous wine company. He told me that Santa Barbara wine comes from grapes that get “physiologically ripe without a lot of sugar.” Thanks to Santa Barbara’s temperate climate, premium wineries such as Margerum produce “dry wines that have lower alcohol, better acidity, that go better with food,” he explained. Margerum’s wines, he offered, can have notes of “apples and cherries, or citrus fruits and strawberries, depending on what side of the mountain the grapes were grown on.” One of the sweet pairings Margerum mentioned was his Late Harvest Viognier with lemon creme brûlée. In addition, he said, the local catch of scallops, sea urchin and spiny lobster pair well with his Sauvignon Blanc. This confirmed what I had just found out: you should know the flavor notes of your wine before pairing it, rather than doing what I normally do and treating wine as a drink on the side.
The following day I attended the Taste of Santa Barbara Soiree, it was there that I began to pick Stacie Jacob’s brain about party planning. Jacob, the Taste of Santa Barbara events director, said the most important elements of party planning are sticking to a budget as well as a theme. The Taste of Santa Barbara was a commemorative community gathering used to educate the community about wine while also celebrating the life of Julia Child. The soiree was held in the Casa de la Guerra courtyard, which included circular tables with seating, as well as bar tables for a more casual atmosphere. Jacob argued that a sit-down dinner “would perhaps miss out on the connection to the community, where you got the camaraderie of people coming and connecting with each other, and gathering. And so we kind of said, ‘What about a soiree?’ We didn’t want it to be just a reception, we wanted to kind of have a little bit more of a party atmosphere.”
Deciding on the tone of the party aided in the next steps. Live music filled the courtyard with covers of some of the ‘80s greatest hits, and blue linens on the bar tables were paired with bright orange flowers that added a pop of color. Jacob said, “we want to keep everything very natural and really put the focus on the food and the wine tonight.” She added that events like this can in fact be held by college students, just at a different price point. Featuring local, more affordable pours demonstrates that great wine can be had at any value; it just matters what the audience desires.
I also spoke with chefs during the soiree, inquiring about wine pairings and how even the most unique food can have an incredible pair. Each chef brought two to three items for guests to try. Chef Alex Bollinger of El Encanto brought abalone and vichyssoise because he thought that a white wine, like a Chardonnay, would be able to cut through the fattiness of vichyssoise, and a Sauvignon Blanc would pair well with the abalone due to its acidity. “Chardonnay mirrors those flavor profiles and complements them at the same time,” Bollinger said. Other chefs contributing to the evening, such as Justin West of Market Forager, took the opposite approach. While he also worked backwards and matched the food with the wine, he said he enjoys pairing contrasting flavors as much as he enjoys symbiotic flavors. However, both shared the overarching message that when it comes to wine pairings, it depends on what you’re eating as well as personal preference.
When it comes to pairing wine with desserts, Chef Sandra Abu Zelli of Gipsy Hill Bakery opted to use local and seasonal ingredients. Her desserts — fruit pavlova and citrus tartlets — keep good company with a nice crisp white wine, similar to what Margerum had told me the day before. The evening offered one of many examples throughout the week’s festival of what can happen when the right wine meets its perfect pairing.
Finding the perfect wine pairing and planning a party can be difficult, especially if you’re on a budget or don’t know where to start. With the pairings offered at Taste of Santa Barbara, one commonality shined through: shop locally. Local produce and catches provide extremely fresh and vibrant flavors that store-bought food might lack. In addition, it helps build relationships with your community and enhances your palate. Working “backwards” in order to choose food that would either compliment or contrast the flavors of the wine was another essential step. As for party planning, small upgrades, such as silverware or tablecloths, and pops of color can enhance a room immensely. However, setting a tone and maintaining focus on a central theme — food, music, community — can help guide both aspects of the planning process. For all these reasons, Taste of Santa Barbara was an enlightening experience.