Wine and Food Affair

We’ve been huge fans of this event for the past three years, but something bad has happened to the program in 2014.
Many of the popular vineyards did not take part and overly the effort from most of those that did seemed a little half hearted.
I guess the vineyards are not hurting to sell wine in this economy, so it must be tough for ‘Wine Road’ to sell this opportunity to them.
For us the attendees, it resulted in a pretty underwhelming experience. Much of the wine poured was ‘bottom shelf’ and it appears that there was a glut of polenta in Sonoma… I mean seriously… Nearly every pairing was something with polenta!
It was almost comical. Surely Wine Road could coordinate the pairings a little better to make sure there is some variety.
And no accompanying cook book this year. Apparently all the (mostly polenta) recipes are available online instead :-)
A disappointing ting decision that sums up how cheap this event has become.
Needless to say, this event is, sadly, no longer worth it compared with the previous high quality standards it set itself in previous years.
On the positive side… Kudos to Amista, Silver Oak and Martorana for pouring their best wine and serving good food.
But shame on you Alexander Valley Vineyards for closing you food station an hour early on Sunday. Cheap Skates!

Perfect experience nov 2012. I recommend to everyone who likes good food and wine and a bit of adventure.

I’ve attended the Wine and Food Affair religiously year after year. As a local and a vineyard owner, I like to support all the local wineries in the area. I also happen to be very fond of both wine and food. It’s my favorite event out of all the local shindigs like Winter Wineland, Barrel tasting and Passport.
For a fixed price ticket (80 bucks this year), you get two fun filled days of hopping from winery to winery, tasting their luscious wines and sampling scrumptious food. You also get a massive cookbook featuring all the food each winery chose to make. I say that’s a pretty solid deal!
Unfortunately, I don’t think this year was as successful as years past. I still had a great time with my group, but the price is slowly increasing and I felt like many of wineries didn’t take a lot of pride in their food. I came across some very terrible dishes, so much that I had the throw them away.
This years winery winners include:
Carol Shelton (French dip sliders with karma au jus)
Kendall Jackson (Kobe tri-​tip sandwich with bleu cheese buttermilk dressing)
Robert Young (Wild boar sausage. His wines are also outstanding)
Sapphire Hill (Steak sapphire with spinach, crab and Bearnaise sauce)
Ridge (Ricotta malfatti with sausage, spinach and peppers)
Hawley (Spicy crab arancini)
Those wineries really put some thought and pride into their food and the wine pairings. If I did not mention your name, it is time to step it up a notch.
All in all, it is a super event and recommend everyone give it a go. You’ll be fat, drunk and happy!

After faithfully attending this stupendous event for the past three years, this will be the first year I cannot. However, I still wanted to boast and brag and give five humongous red stars to the creators of this fine and fabulous wine tasting event. And hopefully give you reason enough to go.
For $ 60 you get two entire days of sampling wines in the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys. I personally find the wines here much better than their neighbors down in Napa. And you don’t get the overblown tasting fees and often snobby service.
But wait! They don’t call it a Wine and Food Affair for nothing! Each winery features a creative dish to pair with one of their wines. Heaven on earth! Once you choose a winery to pick up your tasting glass and cookbook of all the recipes featured that year, you are on your way to hours in this beautiful wine country.
Some highly recommended wineries:
Arista
Acorn
Le Crema
Limerick Lane
This years participating wineries look smaller from the previous years. Also, the price jumped $ 5 and is now $ 65.
If you are looking for a great place to stay I highly recommend renting an entire house from Russian River Getaways.
The only dilemma you will have is choosing who will be the designated driver!

excerpted from blog article at:
The Wine Road is one of the best organized, well run and marketing wine appellations I know. Its the combined appellations of Russian River Valley, Green Valley, Dry Creek Valley, and Alexander Valley.
Northern California Wine Country has many events, and its been a passion and pleasure of mine to attend many. While there are many good ones, there are a few that are GREAT. One of my favorites is this weekend’s Wine Road’s Wine & Food Affair. I feel some events are becoming a bit pricey for what they deliver; the Wine and Food Affair is one of the best values, and experiences Sonoma that Wine Country has to offer.
wr-​logo
This special «Tasting Along the Wine Road» is November 7 & 8, Saturday & Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm. A Wine & Food Affair is the «premier event for the Wine Road, featuring a weekend of wine and food pairing in the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys.»
So what is this about? 80 wineries along the Wine Road (aptly named ‘Heaven Condensed’) offer food pairings to go along with their wines being poured. This is a ‘passport’ event — meaning you pay one fee, and can visit as many participating wineries as you wish. At just $ 60 for the entire weekend, or $ 40 for Sunday, this is an amazing value. People who pre-​registered also get a great cookbook of the recipes.
So 5 hours a day for 2 days, and 80 wineries. How do you pick? I have a (longish) list of Wine Road favorites, I am going to try and stay neutral, and offer other suggestions to enjoy this event. And this is about food pairings, not just wine.
The Golden Rule: PLAN! Plan, plan, plan, plan. Did I say plan? Do you close your eyes at Safeway and throw random articles into your cart? No. So, don’t just drive down Dry Creek, or Westside Road and stop anywhere. There are great resources on the Wine Road website I am going to suggest — follow and use them.
So where do you start?
First are you going for one day or both? If only one, then its really important to map out a hit list, and start early.
(Blog article has details on each)
1. What varietals (wine types) do you prefer?
2. Use The Wine Road web site to assist you.
3. Consult the Participating Winery List.
4. Bring a cooler. And your wallet.
5. Bring a Spit Cup.
6. Start Early, hit off the path wineries later.
7. Be Courteous, Please
and most of all, Have fun!

Such an amazing event! One ticket and you get a wristband and wineglass for tastings in all participating vinyards and tasting rooms for two days… and most of them are participating. It is like a progressive wine dinner, with lots of extra tastings and scenery along the way. We spent saturday drinving around the Wine Road and Sunday walking between tasting rooms. This way you get to taste one dish at each venue that is paired with a wine, and then several tastes of other wines. It is a great way to check out all of the wineries, and compare. During the two days, we probably went to about 14 places, and it was only the beginning. Set in early November, the air was cool and it was sunny and beautiful, with the grape leaves turning a shade of autumn gold. As a souvenir, you get a beautiful book with a picture of the vinyard and a recipe for the tasting dish. I hope to go back next year!

My Boyfriend and I were planning our 2-​year Anniversary when my step-​mom suggested we use the timeshare after looking around I decide that Wine Country would be our go-​to spot. We booked Saturday Nov 1-​Tuesday Nov 4 and began searching for fun things to do, wineries to visit, food to eat. I came accross
and this event spoke out to me it said «Amanda you can eat gourmet food and drink amazing wine all day only for $ 40»
I called my boyfriend who bought the tickets and the next few weeks I google mapped all of them, Unilocaled all of them, organized them by street, and even color-​coded them (I mean c’mon there were 78 to choose from I had to narrow it down)
We started off on Dry Creek where we checked in got our wrist bands, glass, and cook book (you recieve if you buy your tickets in advance) We visited some vineyards then when to Healdsburg Avenue where we went to tasting rooms.
The food alone got 5 stars
The wine was soooo good and ranged in price. We ended up buying a bottle from almost every place we went too!
Def going next year!

Scrumptious & Delumptious
Wine… food… more wine… more food… buzzzz… more wine… more buzzzzz… more wine… rest … more wine… more food… pretty much sums up what happens during the Wine and Food Affair hosted by the Russian River WIne Road.
There are several different events hosted on the Russian River Wine Road — Barrel Tasting, Winter Wonderland, Wine and Food Affair — all are great but each have their own strengths.
All of these events are great for the budding wine connoisseur. Basically, there are a bunch of participating wineries that open their doors to wine lovers of all shapes and sizes… but all over the age of 21, of course. They have gotten better at enforcing this through the years, so now everyone who is able to drink has a wristband. You go from winery to winery tasting the wines they have to offer, occasionally being provided a snacky to munch on while there.
What differentiates the Wine and Food Affair from other events is their emphasis on the food pairings. At other events, wineries MAY offer some snacks, but at the Wine and Food Affair, they tend to provide slightly fancier snackies. The price of these fancier snackies is substantial compared to the cost of other events, such as the barrel tasting (although the gap has been narrowing since the barrel tasting has gotten more popular and prices have gone up). The WIne and Food Affair runs around $ 40-​$ 60, while the Barrel Tasting started off at $ 5 a few years ago and is now around $ 20. Because of the heftier cost, the Wine and Food Affair tends to be less crowded than other events.
Fortunately, you will be provided with a map with a detailed listing of what each winery is offering in terms of snackies (warning — this map isn’t ALWAYS correct. I’ve been to wineries advertising one thing but offering another… but the descriptions are generally spot on), so you can plan your belly’s inebriation in advance. Some locations don’t accept limos or tour buses, so that might put a kink in those luxurious weekend plans with a big group.
Unfortunately, this event has gotten more and more popular each year. As with most good things, when everyone learns about it, it starts getting too crowded and the value starts diminishing.