What's Laird Drinking Now?

For the second year in a row we attended Will and Kathy Stolzenburg’s Chile pepper roasting party. It is a great event that evokes a real sense of community with all the neighbors wandering over bearing chili pepper themed dishes and kids running to and fro. We ate too much (the tamales were especially good) and I was full before Will even fired up the Chile roaster.

While we were there I got to meet George Durazzo who is involved in a project to bring the wines of Veleta winery in Spain to the U.S. He tasted me on three wines and sent me home with a fourth. I was not taking notes since it was a party, but they were all very good. There was a white made from Vijiriega , a native grape dating back some three thousand years. It was good, dry, and almondy with white stone fruits. My favorite for the chilies was a rose of Tempranillo that had a pronounced spicy character to it. It was certainly one of the best roses I have had this year. Finally we tasted the Nolados, a proprietary red blend. It was rich without being heavy and very well balanced in its cassis fruit and deft oaking. I believe these are all to be very well priced but could not get firm quotes as they are still working out distribution. They are well worth looking out for in the future. The Cabernet a few days later was also very tasty and went well with some hanger steak.

We really love this party and hope to attend for years to come. Community events like this are too rare and that is a shame because they really bring people together in the best of ways. I really enjoyed meeting George and talking shop about his restaurant days. The wines, as I said, are worth seeking out.