Have you ever met a “mom on a mission”?
If you have, you remember the encounter and the mother in question. The mom on a mission I know is Wendy Thies Sell, the former writer of this very column, whose 10-year-old daughter has Type 1 diabetes. It’s become a mission for her to help spread the word about the condition.
“Her endocrinologist is a top researcher at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in Santa Barbara,” Thies Sell explained in an email. “There are no pediatric endocrinologists in northern Santa Barbara County or SLO County, so all of the kids with Type 1 diabetes in the Santa Maria Valley and SLO County must travel to Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, or the SF Bay Area to see a doctor every three months.”
What does all of this have to do with food and wine? I may not be a mom, but my mission is eating great food and drinking lots of excellent wine. To that end, Presqu’ile Winery in Santa Maria is putting on a winemaker dinner to benefit Sansum’s research and work on Oct. 25 at the vineyard’s tasting room. The event features local food, wine, and an opportunity to learn a bit about diabetes in the region and why it’s an important issue.
Kara Hornbuckle, event and stewardship manager with Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, said the winemaker series has been a successful fundraiser for the group in the past. A fundraiser in April 2017 at Ember in Arroyo Grande helped raise more than $30,000 for the group. The dinner at Presqu’ile marks the first of its kind in Santa Maria for Sansum.
“What is really important to us is to really represent the different regions throughout the community,” Hornbuckle said. “We have people who are impacted by diabetes throughout the Central Coast who are participating in our work and what we are doing.”
Sansum does research related to Type I and Type II diabetes as well as outreach programs for adults, children, and seniors. Hornbuckle said they hope to raise $10,000 at the Presqu’ile event, which will go toward funding more of their programs. The dinner will also feature a brief presentation from Dr. Jordan Pinsker, a pediatric endocrinologist, who will talk about programs and research for children with diabetes.
Presqu’ile’s Dieter Cronje hand-picked the wines, and chef Tracy Labastida with Field to Table, based out of Nipomo, is the chef featured at the winemaker dinner. It’s not the first time he has been part of a fundraiser for Sansum (a staff member at his company has a brother with diabetes).
The chef said he was excited to work with the organization and to partner with Cronje for the event.
“Whenever we create a menu, the first thing we do is see what’s in season,” Labastida said. “We wanted to have the food reflect the overall setting at Presqu’ile and the season.”
The first course is a pairing with Presqu’ile’s 2017 sauvignon blanc, which utilizes native yeast fermentation and is aged in neutral French oak barrels and concrete eggs. For this course, Labastida is creating a wild salmon cake, jalapeños, and a jicama and apple slaw, with white balsamic pearls.
“I tried [the wine],” the chef said. “It’s pretty green and will withstand some acid on it with the balsamic, jicama, and apple and the green pulling from the jalapeño. The salmon cake itself is mild in flavor and will be a nice mellow, neutral component of the dish.”
The second course is a hyperlocal and seasonal dish, reflecting a lot of elements of agriculture and fishing in Santa Barbara County. Labastida’s colorful cream corn risotto pulls heavily from fall elements and, with lobster season kicking off, he adds locally sourced butter poached lobster.
The wine pairing is a side-by-side tasting of the 2014 and the 2015 Presqu’ile Vineyard chardonnay. As Presqu’ile has evolved, so has the soil on its grounds. Sandy soil helps create chardonnays enriched with minerals, giving these wines their distinctive Presqu’ile-specific taste.
“It has some butter,” Labastida said of the chardonnays. “It’s a little more fruit forward, and I think it will be a very fun pairing.”
The third course also features a side-by-side pairing, this time with Presqu’ile’s 2014 and 2015 Vineyard Pinot Noirs. These wines are especially popular because of their distinctive earthy and spicy flavors, including sandalwood, cherry, and rose petal.
“We’re doing quail but we’re stuffing it with focaccia bread and sausage,” Labastida said. “It’s kind of a play on a stuffed turkey.”
For the final course, Cronje chose a 2013 late harvest chardonnay. So Labastida decided to incorporate it into a poached pear along with a maple pound cake with toasted hazelnuts, finished with a spiced butternut puree. He said he opted for a dessert with savory notes to balance the sweetness of the last wine in the meal.
“It’s a really intimate experience,” said Hornbuckle. “It’s a chance to experience a beautiful location and great food and wine as well as learn about an important cause.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is currently in season. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
• Did you know the Copenhagen Sausage Garden in Solvang offers discounts to locals? Just show your Santa Ynez Valley identification to redeem deals such as $1 off any sausage. Check them out at 1660 Copenhagen Drive.
• I enjoy these fish tacos (pictured) at Natural Cafe so much I practically could adopt them into my family. They have a good amount of heat on them and are served with salsa and blue corn chips. I approve. Visit the restaurant at 2407 S. Broadway, Santa Maria.
• Happy hour at Hill Haven Provisions is Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. and features $6 draft beers, wine, and well drinks and $7 speciality drinks and appetizers. Grab your designated driver and go have some fun at 448 Atterdag Road, Solvang.
• Happy autumn to everyone, especially this bottle of Rancho Sisquoc 2016 Santa Barbara County sauvignon blanc. The grapes grow warm and longer, waiting for harvest at the peak moment and emitting notes of honeysuckle, pear, and oak. The tasting room is located at 6600 Foxen Canyon Road, Santa Maria.
• Coffee a la Cart is now offering seasonal drinks including salted caramel latte, pumpkin pie latte, caramel praline latte, eggnog latte, caramel chai, and a gingerbread latte. If that doesn’t get you in a seasonal mood, then your heart is as black and frozen as the Grinch’s. Visit thecoffeealacart.com for mobile cart locations.
• Barrelworks‘ first foray into méthode traditionelle, a method of making sparkling wine using the specific procedures originally developed in France’s Champagne, is Feral Brut. The brewer spent four years to produce it and now has a limited amount of cases available for purchase from Oct. 20 through Nov. 25 at 620 McMurray Road, Buellton.
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2018.