I may not want to “Eat Dirt,” but I’m sure as heck going to try it, if only to blast proof-of-life photos all over my social media. And I think that free advertising is exactly what the team at Priest Ranch is counting on with their new, teasingly subtitled “Taste The Terroir” pairing at their Yountville tasting room.
More on that actual experience later, but this is just one example of how local wineries are increasingly trying to bring in younger generations. Older adults may be surprised, but some local food pairings have been evolving past elegant, expected nibbles like dainty bites of roast duck with Pinot Noir.
Recently, I’ve been seeing more out-there offerings, ranging from sour cream and chive potato chips, to seasonal Halloween candy, to cotton candy fluff (truly, served with a Dry Creek Valley winery’s sparkling Moscato).
Some of them work surprisingly well.
The other week, I was at the Anderson Valley International White Wine Festival in Boonville, and snacked on wasabi peas while I sipped a 2023 Matanzas Creek California Chenin Blanc. The tongue-tingling fiery, crunchy snack made me salivate, bringing out the wine’s intriguing prickly pear, green banana and salty acidity. I later bought a package of wasabi peas for my home sipping regimen.
It’s also true that others matchings don’t succeed.
I still tremble over the trauma of the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos one Calistoga winery pushed on me alongside its syrupy sweet Muscat dessert concoction a few years ago (that tasting room has since closed).
As always with wine, your palate is personal, so stop in at these tasting rooms to see if these pairings work for you. And then if you want to go home and eat jelly beans while sipping Grenache, just remember, it’s whatever makes you happy.
Potato chips and pizzettas at Silver Trident
Long known for its Potato Chip Extravaganza that brings five wines paired with five flavors of potato chips ($75), the Yountville winery has two things to announce.
One, the tasting room has moved, relocating from its posh stone building that also housed an eye-candy Ralph Lauren store to a smaller, much less flashy salon tucked behind Wells Fargo Bank on Washington Street.
Two, we can now dig into a Pizza Pairing. Which is not a novel idea, but is fun any way you slice it. These noshes are actually pizzettas, specifically tall slabs of crusty, airy focaccia with a variety of toppings, like sweet butternut squash, feta, basil and hot honey paired with Apollo’s Folly Rosé of Pinot Noir.
It’s pricey at $80, so you can make your own decision about paying that for savory topped bread made by a caterer and warmed up in a toaster oven behind the tasting room’s front desk.
But if you’re curious about trying the elegant wines, the pizzettas elevate the tasting.
A Symphony No. 9 Sauvignon Blanc is good with the goat cheese, golden beets, pickled red onion and shiso slice, while the Benevolent Dictator Pinot Noir is excellent with duck confit, spiced plum balsamic and peppercress.
Playing with Fire Red Blend matches smoothly with meaty maitake mushrooms and curls of spicy capicola (dry-cured pork salume), and Twenty Seven Fathoms fits perfectly with red wine-braised beef, caramelized fennel, thyme and alderwood smoked sea salt.
For an extra $20, you can sit on the patio and treat your dog, too. The new Puppy Pairings is an add-on luxury bringing a take-home Silver Trident-branded water bowl and four handmade doggy treats. It’s a cute menu — a wine bottle shaped peanut butter rye cookie, a blueberry “Grrr-Nola” bone, a wine glass shaped peanut butter rice cookie, and a Nuggets the Squirrel peanut butter and oats treat.
6484 Washington St., Yountville, 707-945-0311, silvertridentwinery.com
Chocolate ‘dirt’ at Priest Ranch
The soil in the new “Eat Dirt” pairing turns out to be chocolate “soils,” as in high-end cacao-based delicacies from chocolatier Chris Kollar of Yountville’s Kollar Chocolates. Or as the winery’s website endearingly calls them, “clumps.”
Four bonbons pair with four wines ($65), in flavors including a Loam & Lemon of Meyer lemon white chocolate with bee pollen, raw sugar and Oreo crumbs for nibbling with Block 71 Sauvignon Blanc. I’m not a fan of dulling a great wine with what’s usually aggressive chocolate, but this pairing is a winner, nicely floral and gently sweet.
The Clay & Cocoa pairing is another success, delivering pomegranate-pink peppercorn spiked dark chocolate ganache, cocoa nibs and chocolate crumbs paired with Block 136 Cabernet Sauvignon.
I have to admit that, to me, it’s a reach to say the chocolate — even the shaved chocolate ribbon of crumbles snaking down the middle of the wood serving board — can reflect the soil characters in which grapes are grown. But then, perhaps I just haven’t eaten enough dirt.
6490 Washington St., Yountville, 707-944-8200, priestranchwines.com
PB&J bruschetta and polenta tots at Clif Family
For a do-it-yourself pairing, the St. Helena winery offers its own Clif Family Bruschetteria food truck. A wine educator is on hand to guide you through the menu if need be, but mix and match as you like.
Try the vegan, gluten-free polenta tots made with heirloom red flint corn and chili powder, paired with the Clif Chardonnay, or the Firecracker Salad with kale, Napa cabbage, Meyer lemon-miso dressing, pickled carrots and sweet and spicy curry seeds alongside the Clif Viognier.
If the specialty PB&J bruschetta is on offer, get that, too. Housemade blackberry jam, melds with peanut butter, wildflower honey mousse, crunchy roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds on grilled Model Bakery sourdough. I like it with the light and relatively dry Grenache Rosé, which balances the sweet jelly and creamy peanut butter.
709 Main St., St. Helena, 707-968-0625, cliffamily.com