Sips and Nibbles along the Wine Road

This past weekend I attended a wine and food event in the area.....A Wine & Food Affair held in the Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley areas.  With the purchase of your event ticket, you receive this fabulous cookbook....

We started our journey out at Dutton Estate, some of my favorite Pinot Noir is found there.  All the participating wineries paired their wines with a recipe from the cookbook.  Dutton had Moroccan lamb stew with tart cherries paired with their Pinots.  It was so good and I was so hungry, I forgot to get a pic of it.

Our next stop was just down the road and around the corner to Lynmar Estate.

We were in "Pinot Country" and we were happy.  I only sipped a little because I was the DD for the day but my friends, Devi and Jody, made up for my lack of tasting.

Lynmar has beautiful gardens and outdoor areas to sit and enjoy their wine.

Their tasting room opens up to comfortable patio.  Lounge chairs, tables and benches sprinkled the area with gorgeous views.

Lynmar served turkey and white bean chili with their Pinot.....Loved it!

I'm thinking Super Bowl chili bar right now.......I will be trying out the recipes from this cookbook and sharing them on the blog.

Martin Ray Winery was a fun place to stop and their recipe might be my first to try out of the cookbook....

Mushroom Ragout over soft polenta.....OH YUM.  I wanted an entire bowl of the ragout all to myself.

Martinelli Winery has been around for a long time but it is one I never had the chance to check out, until this past weekend.

They paired their Syrah with wild game stew.  Made with venison, it was quite delicious.

Our final stop of the day was at Robert Rue.  We purposely planned it to be our last stop because they were pairing chocolate ganache cupcakes with their Zin.....but they ran out before we arrived!!! Oh NO!  They did have some of their creamy, chocolaty Zin Fudge out though, which we also bought to bring home....I'm hoarding it here at the house now...shhhh.

If you ever get the chance to attend one of these wine events, do it....it's well worth the price of admission and you get to see some fabulous wineries that may not normally be open to the public, except "by appointment."

The next wine event in this area is the 21st Annual Winter WINEland on January 19-20, 2013.....YAY!