Wonderful Wine, Food and Friends: Throwing my first-ever tasting event (post 1 of 2)
Thanks for everyone’s patience while I got all of the details from this past week’s events up and online.
There were so many wonderful moments over the course of those days that it took a bit to digest (pun intended), and I must say that I am pretty thrilled with the way everything turned out. It was a hectic, multifaceted event that found myself and the respected vintner Adrian Jewell Manspeaker taking part in intimate, private tastings of a few of his very limited California wines with some of my favorite people — and at a favorite restaurant of myself and my wife, no less!
If I’m being completely honest, once all the dust settled, I felt both excited and accomplished, as this was the first time I have ever instigated and put together a series of wine events from start to finish. I’ve certainly done winemaker dinners before, but they were always initiated and facilitated by others. This time around, Adrian flew to Atlanta specifically to be with us and meet with our friends. We were able to gather a bunch of great folks to come out and meet him and taste his wine alongside some wonderful food, and it seemed as though everyone truly enjoyed the experience. Many ordered wine from him right there on the spot (which is a common occurrence at tasting events of this sort), and all in all I think this was a huge success.
One added benefit of all this is the fact that since these events came off so well, it has motivated and inspired me to put on events of a similar scope on a more regular basis from this point forward.
The whole affair began on Tuesday, June 18 with a three-course winemaker dinner at Mediterranea, in tandem with the Sommelier Guild of Atlanta. The way this whole opportunity came to be goes all the way back to last year. Since my wife Dio and I have been Benefactors of the High Museum’s Wine Auction for the past few years, the folks at the High reached out to us to see if we’d like to join a group of people who were traveling to Napa to “cultivate” winemakers. Basically, what that means is to meet with and assess two different kinds of winemakers. The first group are those which have come to the attention of the High, and which they’d love to have take part in their auction. The idea there is to convince them to do so. The second group are winemakers who are themselves eager to take part and have essentially asked the High to consider them for participation in this very visible and rather prestigious fundraiser. Our group’s role was to decide whether any or all of those wineries had “the right stuff.” Were their wines of excellent quality? Did each winery’s attitudes and personalities mesh with the vibe of the event? What sort of unique auction lots could they contribute to the auction? You get the drift.
Adrian had approached the High back in 2023 about being involved, as he’s trying to grow his company’s profile in the Southeast, where it’s not as well-known as on the West Coast. So, in July of that year, a little over a dozen of us spent several days in California, first in Sonoma, and then in Napa. We split up into several groups and each group toured different wineries, tasted their wines and met with their representatives. Each night, we’d all meet back up together and discuss over dinner who we’d met and what we’d learned. If any of us found any wine we thought was especially noteworthy, it would be brought and shared, so everyone could try some and factor that into our group’s recommendations on which wineries should be invited to participate in the next auction.
On the very first day of our trip, one of the very first stops Dio and I made was at Joseph Jewell. We met Adrian (the owner) at that time and followed him out to a very well-regarded Sonoma vineyard called Starscape, and tried several of his wines. Looking back, his offerings were the very best of any that we tasted from the Sonoma area. We got some to share with the others, who appreciated them as well, and lo and behold, when the next High Museum Wine Auction rolled around, Adrian and his wines were featured. In the interim, I randomly opened a bottle of one of his pinots that I’d tasted in Sonoma and that second experience only affirmed to me just how much I enjoyed it. A month or so later, it was time for the auction, and after becoming reacquainted with Adrian (who’s an incredibly down-to-earth and straightforward fellow), we decided we should bid on his lot.
The high bidder would receive a case of his wine, plus Adrian himself would travel to your location and do a private wine tasting for you and two dozen of your friends. We won (!), and quickly set about scheduling a big dinner at Mediterranea, which is a very unique eatery, as it is the only restaurant in Atlanta that is certified as a gluten-free establishment. By that, they mean that they are inspected to prove that not a single thing on their menu or in their kitchen contains gluten. So, folks who are truly allergic to that ingredient (such as my wife) can be completely at ease there, and order whatever they feel like, with no worries or concerns: the bread, desserts, anything.
I don’t have any issues with gluten personally, but I have come to really love the place, because it’s simply a great restaurant, regardless. Plus, some of our friends who live near the place have become fans of it as well. It occurred to me that this would be a great place to host this tasting, and since our friends knew the owners pretty well, I asked them if they would inquire if Mediterranea would be interested in allowing us to hold a Guild event there.
Luckily for us, the owners of Mediterranean were very open to the idea, and extremely nice and easy to work with. They agreed to come on board as what our Guild terms a “Participating Venue,” which was much appreciated and allowed our organization to add a great new restaurant to the list of places we can consider hosting such things in the future. The guild does events of this type on a fairly regular basis, and in the process works with each venue to coordinate the food menu with the specific types of wines which will be served. Once that was all settled, Adrian shipped the wine from California about a week ahead of time. He then flew in on a red-eye, and later I picked him up from his hotel and we headed over to the restaurant just a bit before its planned start. That gave us time to mingle and drink some champagne (a 2011 Champagne Lété-Vautrain Brut Millésimé, which was served slightly warmer than I tend to prefer, but otherwise was very nice).
Eventually, I introduced Adrian, and he explained a bit about the unique and inspiring backstory of his specialty winery to the gathered guests.
“I started a small brand back in 2018. It originated in my garage, and it wasn’t my intent to start a winery,” he explained. “But we were young enough and not fully aware of how the whole wine industry and how it worked, that we just pushed forward and started this little brand called Joseph Jewell. My middle name is Jewell, and my co-founder’s middle name is Joseph. So that’s where Joseph Jewell came from. That was ‘06, It’s 2024, and I’ve been making mostly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Sonoma County. I have a few vineyards that are up in Humboldt County, as well. That’s one of my niches. Humboldt County is about three hours north of Sonoma County on the coast by the Oregon border.”
Check out the full video where Adrian talks about his brand, how he started in the wine business and later talks all about the first wine of the night.
Then dinner began. Briefly, let me say that the food was a smash, as far as I’m concerned. We began with a 2021 Joseph Jewell Chardonnay (derived from the Ritchie Vineyard in the Russian River Valley), and that was paired very nicely with focaccia and burrata. As I mentioned above, given her allergies, anytime Dio and I can enjoy good bread together is a treat. We’ve made a point to order these specific appetizers here in the past, and as always, they did not disappoint.
Later on, as the salad and main courses of pizza and turkey lasagna appeared, Adrian offered up four of his Pinots. They are all lovely and it was hard for me to pick my favorite between the 2021 from Elk Prairie Vineyard in Humboldt County (on the North Coast, up near the Oregon border) and the 2021 Jewell Rubies.
Enjoy the photos of everything we sampled, and don’t forget to check out my tasting notes on CellarTracker. For my thoughts on all four pinots, see my notes in “Flight 2 - Salad and Main Course”
Later on, as the crowd thinned, we realized a number of us had the following day off as a holiday, and we decided to head over to my favorite local East Atlanta bar, Argosy, to continue the conversation. Adrian and some friends of his from Atlanta joined me at Argosy, and although we switched to beers, the topics of discussion remained wine, winemaking, our individual favorite wines, and some very interesting gossip about folks we collectively know in the wine biz. (Don’t ask me for details, because what’s said at Argosy, stays at Argosy!)
What I will allow is that one thing we did discuss was the subject of when exactly to open a really good wine. My feeling on this is that, in a very real sense, none of us are ever guaranteed another day or week or month. That’s just the facts of life. So, with that in mind, open those wines today! Open those wines tomorrow! Don’t save them for some special event that may never come, or which you may not be around to see. Open them when surrounded by friends and loved ones, and revel in that moment of togetherness and conviviality!
Up next, the second day of this multifaceted Joseph Jewell tasting event…
