The Tasting Panel magazine

August 2018

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august 2018  /  the tasting panel  /  105 At the festival, the spread of exceptional food was presented alongside an exhaustive list of high-caliber wines often poured by the winemakers themselves. Hartford Family Winery, Byron Winery, J. Wilkes, CIRQ, Kosta Browne, and Hill Family Estate only just begin to scratch the surface of the attending wineries, so much so that the broad spectrum of producers and quality of wines available was almost overwhelming. This veritable bounty could be enjoyed during the festival's major walkaround events like The Grand Tasting and the Seafood Festival or in more intimate fashion via the seminars. Attendees of the "Two Nancy's" Cooking Demonstration, for example, feasted on a four-course meal prepared by chefs Nancy Silverton and Nancy Oakes and paired with Williams Selyem and Hartford Family Winery wines. Other items on the itinerary came with more of an enological focus (after all, this was the Kapalua Wine & Food festival, not the Kapalua Food & Wine festival). One such wine-centric seminar was the aforementioned "Digging into Unique Terroir," during which The SOMM Journal led attendees through a tasting representing some of the most beloved terroir in the world of wine. When the audience was asked to offer their definition of terroir, Doug Hill of Hill Family Estate shot up his hand. With more than 40 years of vineyard management experience, his thorough defini- tion in short described the "total environment in which a wine is produced." After we teasingly accused him of cheating, we moved on to our first example of a truly unique sense of place. ALTO ADIGE, I TALY The tasting hit the ground running as Kristina Sazama, Wine Educator for Santa Margherita USA, presented Kettmeir's lively Pinot Grigio and Müller-Thurgau from the 2017 vintage. The razor-sharp Sazama—a Certified Sommelier and French Wine Scholar who holds a Diploma of Wine and Spirits with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, along with extensive experience on the floors of New York's best restaurants—toyed a bit with the attendees. "Think of what you know about Italy, then forget it," Sazama said in reference to the Alto Adige appellation, a German-speaking Alpine region in northern Italy known for its crisp white wines produced at higher elevations. Established in 1919, Kettmeir is one of the wineries responsible for these well-known whites. In Alto Adige, the plentiful sun and cold winds define the bulk of the terroir while the elevation creates a wide diurnal swing, help- ing the grapes retain their acidity. "Kettmeir's wines from the Alto Adige reflect the purity of fruit and crisp character of the Alpine mountain air that breezes through the vineyards," Sazama said. "Our Pinot Grigio is a classic grape of the region with flavors including apples, another crop this region is very well-known for." After this palate-priming wine came the tropi- cal Kettmeir Müller-Thurgau. "Müller-Thurgau is often found in Germany, but our dry version hails from a single vineyard at 700 meters (2,300 feet) overlooking the capital city of Balzano and shows rather intense exotic fruit notes without being overwhelming," Sazama said. A bar dripping with freshly made donuts ripe for the picking. Chef Alvin Savella of The Banyan Tree displays how he earned his "Maui's Chef of the Year" title during the Kapalua Seafood Festival. Kristina Sazama, Wine Educator for Santa Margherita USA.

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