An Amuse Bouche to the 2015 Pebble Beach Food & Wine
Southern ham done in the style of Iberico jamon — magically appears during a hiking tour of Post Ranch Inn.
When you get a group of esteemed Master Sommeliers together, you know there’s going to be an abundance of fine wines uncorked.
When you get them together at Big Sur’s gorgeous Post Ranch Inn as a prelude to next spring’s Pebble Beach Food & Wine extravaganza, the drinking and dining are of the highest order and pretty much go on non-stop.
That’s what I was lucky enough to be privy to when I was invited as a guest to the soiree and to Post Ranch Inn a few weeks ago.
A room with a view at Post Ranch Inn.
The Nest — a sculpture that you can cocoon away in.
Sierra Mar restaurant.
Among the other guests at the two-night affair were: David Bernahl, founder of the Pebble Beach event; Lara Sailor Long, executive wine director for the event; Kim Beto of Southern Wine & Spirits; Shayn Bjornholm, education director for the Court of Master Sommeliers; Ian Cauble of SommSelect; Dominque DaCruz, wine director of Post Ranch Inn; Christie Dufault, former wine director at Restaurant Gary Danko; Seth Kunin of Kunin Wines; Jordan MacKay, wine and spirits writer; Carlton McCoy, wine director for The Little Nell in Aspen; and Larry Stone, estate director of Huneeus Vintners in Rutherford.
Executive Chef John Cox of the Sierra Mar restaurant at Post Ranch Inn along with Levi Mezick and Ben Spungen, corporate executive chef and corporate pastry chef of Coastal Luxury Management respectively, which runs the Pebble Beach fest, feted us with their finest. But when you’re pairing food with wines from the likes of Billecart, Penfolds and Royal Tokaji, you have to bring your A-game.
They’ll all be part of the April 9-12, 2015 Pebble Beach Food & Wine event, which brings together 250 wineries and 75 chefs for cooking demos, wine tastings, and exclusive dinners featuring extraordinary wines.
If this preview is any indication, the April event is sure to be spectacular.
This was my first visit to Post Ranch Inn, settled originally by the Post family, one of Big Sur’s pioneering families.
One of the tree-house accommodations.
Each room is named for an early Big Sur settler.
Inside the Gilkey room.
The adjacent sitting area that overlooks a deck with a hot tub.
Today, the 100-acre ranch is a sight for sore eyes — a breath-taking, adults-only resort with sweeping views of the ocean and rugged coastline. Deer are plentiful, as are the wild turkeys. And the sunsets are truly gawk-worthy.
There are 39 guest rooms, including “tree-house”-style ones built on nine-foot stilts to protect the roots of old-growth trees.
You can get pretty close to the deer without scaring them away.
Wild turkeys near the solar panel grid.
Savoring the sunset.
The first thing you notice when you step into one of the rooms is the soothing fragrance of wood that makes you feel as if you’ve walked into a forest. The aroma is from the walls, themselves, made up of old redwood wine vats that were disassembled and used as paneling.
Everything in the mini fridge is included in the price of the room, including a jar of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and bottles of water, filtered and sealed on-site.
The resort generates most of its own power, having the largest solar grid of any hotel in California.
Local sea urchin — no bigger than a 50-cent piece.
Bread made from flour ground from acorns grown on the property.
(L to R) Sea cucumber chicharron, spot prawn roe, and keyhole limpid.
Sierra Mar may serve tasting menus, but the warm, fire-place-blazing dining room is casual chic. You can come in jeans if you like.
The first night, we enjoyed a nine-course tasting menu ($175; $110 more for wine pairings) by Chef Cox, formerly of La Bicyclette and Casanova restaurants in Carmel.
Sunchokes — pureed, seared and dehydrated — with warm pine branches.
Venison carpaccio with the chef’s hand-print in onion ash.
Buttermilk cake with whey sorbet.
The next morning, Cox led our group on a foraging tour around the meandering property.
Chanterelles grow with abundance after the recent rains. There’s also a culinary garden with kale, persimmons, apples, pineapple sage, Kentucky mint, and a beguiling herb called Sweet Alyssum that smells intensely of honey but tastes like broccoli.
A pink peppercorn tree.
Wild mushrooms after the rain.
Acorns on the property.
When you’re hiking with Master Sommeliers, though, gourmet noshes and stellar wines just appear out of nowhere. Yup, like magic.
Chef John Cox, Culinary Gardener Antoine and a sous chef meet up with us at the garden.
Veggie fritters. Yes, this is the kind of food you eat when you hike with sommeliers.
An assortment of sweets, including pumpkin cream puffs.
A stop along the trail.
Sommeliers doing what sommeliers do.
Dinner that night was held at a private house on the property. It was a tour-de-force that started out with several sparklers and a big tin of Black River Caviar, followed along to a show-stopping whole roasted Mangalitsa pig porchetta and ended with a box of little sweets to take back to our rooms.
Setting up for dinner at the Post House.
And so it begins…
Spiny lobster ceviche. Uh, should I tell you this big guy was still wiggling around a little?
Whole roasted giant Alaskan Red King crab.
Roasted monkfish with a shower of white truffle slices.
Potatoes with fermented black garlic.
The wine flowed all night — and then some.
Presenting a whole pig porchetta.
Carving duties.
The slab of pork with garden-grown kale.
Crepe Suzette enfolding a Grand Marnier souffle inside.
Wonderful food and places!
Best wishes for the New Year.
Cheers,
Rosa
Gorgeous hike, beautiful food, scenic property. What more could you ask for?
Woah, I’ve had sea urchin but never served IN the urchin – that’s wild! Looks like some lovely views there!
Now that’s my kind of hike! 😉 … I’ve never been to the Pebble Beach Food Festival. Always sounds and looks so grand. I’m going to have to just look for your photos in April!