This past Saturday evening, November 19th, Fred Bollaci had the pleasure of attending the fifth annual Wild Truffle Dinner benefiting local children’s charities by Florida WineFest, a Sarasota area charity which has raised nearly $10Million for children’s charities since 1993!
The dinner was attended by over 60 guests who enjoyed the fantastic cuisine of local celebrity chef Chris Covelli, who competed on Chopped with Bobby Flay and is also an instructor at Toscana Saporita Cooking School by Sandra Lotti in Tuscany! Chef Covelli personally hunted the white truffles featured at the dinner with Savini Tartufi in the hills outside of Lucca. The cuisine was a sumptuous seasonal menu designed and executed by Chefs Covelli and Paul Mattison at Mattison’s 41. Covelli and Mattison will be cooking at the James Beard House in NYC next week, where they have been guest chefs before.
The wines featured were from California, two boutique producers: Williamson Winery in Healdsburg (Sonoma), which produces some 40 estate wines ranging from Pinot Noir to Cabernet to Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay with limited production available to wine club members only. Winemaker Sam Williamson, whose parents emigrated from Australia and founded the winery was on hand to present his pairings. The Williamson’s take wine club members to Australia each year, to showcase the best of Aussie food and wine, and visit partner wineries in key wine regions. Carneros della Notte, located in Carneros on the border of southern Napa and Sonoma valleys presented the famous Late Harvest Pinot Noir by entrepreneur and winemaker David Harmon III, founder of Wine.com. In addition to exclusive boutique offerings, Harmon’s newest initiative has garnered rave reviews. If you ever wanted to own a piece of a Napa Valley vineyard, Harmon is offering the opportunity to purchase a vine in his vineyard for one year, which entitles you to 5 gallons of grape juice from the harvest crush (you may then ferment your own), or purchase bottles with your name on the label at a discount, and attend the annual harvest party! I had the pleasure of sitting down with both winemakers over lunch the day before, where we discussed their winemaking philosophies and learned what brought them to Northern California to make wine. Each will be featured in the coming days.
Florida WineFest’s annual weekend celebration and auction will be April 6th-9th, 2017 in Sarasota! Over 100 winemakers from around the world will be present at this much anticipated event! Venu Magazine will also be on hand, as I am writing an exclusive feature about Florida WineFest, Chefs Covelli and Mattison, and these two top winemakers who will also be present in the spring issue.
Filet Mignon with shaved white truffle and black truffle demi.
Above three photos by Chris Covelli.
For more information, visit:www.floridawinefest.org
