Perfect Pairings

         Last week, on one of those rainy and thundery days, we two bloggers and a good friend spent a cozy afternoon doing three things we love—eating, drinking wine and creating art. 

First, let’s talk about the eating and drinking.  We started our afternoon with a spinach Crab Louis accompanied by a Chardonnay from Silvestri Vineyards (www.silvestrivineyards.com). All of us agreed that the 2007 Chardonnay “Bella Sandra” was wonderful.  It had a light golden color, aromas of pear and vanilla, a full-bodied flavor and a long finish (“after glow” as our friend called it).  It was perfectly paired with both the salad and with the chocolate and strawberries we had for dessert. All of us said we would definitely look forward to another encounter with “Bella Sandra.” And we’re now especially excited about trying the other two Silvestri wines, a Pinot Noir and a Syrah, which we will report on in a future blog entry.

The Chardonnay and other Silvestri wines, all made from grapes grown at their vineyard in Carmel Valley, are available at many Monterey Peninsula restaurants and wine shops, all listed on the Silvestri website.  The owner of the vineyards, Alan Silvestri, is talented not only in wine making but in music making as well.  You may recognize him as the award winning composer of such film scores as “Forrest Gump,” “Back to the Future,” and “Romancing the Stone,” to name just a few of over 100 scores he has written.

After our lunch, we started on our art project-- making fabric dolls for a very special art sale that will be held in Carmel on Friday, March 4th to benefit a local non-profit organization called Schools3.  The purpose of Schools3 is to build schools in Mali, India and Honduras.  To date, they have built 52.  We wanted to help, so with colorful batik material from Mali, we created a family of soft sculpture dolls that will be sold along with other art pieces to help pay for the next school. The event will be held from 4:30-7 p.m., at 26538 Carmel Rancho Boulevard in Carmel. 

 
You can read more about  Schools3 at their website, www.schools3.org. 

When the afternoon was over, we were three happy campers.  We had experienced two perfect pairings—wine with food, and wine with art.