The Culinary Institute of America

American sommeliers and wine consumers are still mastering Rioja’s multiple styles and how they pair with food. With that objective, several wine professionals who are Rioja aficionados gathered at the Williams Center for Flavor Discovery at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, California, to explore the topic together.

Tasting organizer Adrian Murcia is the assistant sommelier at Chanterelle restaurant in New York City and author of a blog devoted to Rioja wine and food. To assist him in leading the tasting, he turned to Karen MacNeil, chair of wine studies at the Culinary Institute of America and author of the best-selling book, The Wine Bible. The other panelists included Skye LaTorre, sommelier of A16 restaurant in San Francisco; Paul Roberts, wine director for the French Laundry in Yountville; and Traci Dutton, a wine instructor at the Culinary Institute. Murcia assembled a broad range of Rioja wines, but left it up to Culinary Institute chef-instructors Bill Briwa, John Ash and Andy Wild to come up with food matches. Needless to say, it was a fascinating afternoon and a vivid reminder of Rioja’s many faces.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.