By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
“You step into the main greeting room and you know you are in for not just an experience but a memory that will resonate as will the taste of celebrated harvests both wine and food.”
Most wineries have a familiar expression. “We are putting the finishing touches on newly harvested wines in barrel and “tending to our cover crops which are planted between the grape rows.”
Roblar Winery is serious about two things; the method in which they grow their grapes and the utmost enjoyment the wine brings.
You step into the main greeting room and you know you are in for not just an experience but a memory that will resonate as will the taste of celebrated harvests. Not just this year’s but those whose reputation stand alone. It’s difficult to decide. Is it the nose, the way it swirls and picks up light in the glass, the color, or quite simply the taste? Every wine bursts with flavor with the heritage of vines grown in spectacular sustainable soil and without the use of pesticides.
Award winning chef Ryan Silas-Groves
But tasting wine without the compliment of a great chef, Ryan Silas-Groves, is like standing in front of mirror half naked. Food is as big a pleasure as wine is bold and beautiful.
Team Roblar delivered a Gold Medal Meal with wines to match!
Roblar’s private affair for members and non-members was so well priced that I wish I could go at least once a month on a Saturday night. This 5 course wine paring extravaganza was elegantly planned and served with enthusiam from beginning to end. The plated array began with a light and sumptuous tartar of local halibut with garden fresh herbs and cucumbers. The white wine was chilled and paired beautifully with Roblar’s 2010 Estate Sauvignon Blanc.
All food photos compliments of Marcy Hamilton
The second course was exceptional in terms of the combination of the freshly farmed organic nectarines, greens and sweetened with agave and mint vinaigrette. Paired with Roblar’s 2011 Estate Fumé Blanc a little more tart and fruity but worked well.
Organic endive and nectarine salad
The third course was a chilled spaghetti pasta salad with raw zucchini noddles and kalamata olives. Paired with Roblar’s 2010 Pinot Noir.
Soba noodles
I loved it! But then again I enjoy vegan cuisine and so do a lot of people so it was an excellent choice.
I am a big fan of polenta. It takes a certain midas touch to get it creamy, light and golden. Chef Ryan was purposeful in selecting it as a bed to rest organic roasted figs nestled in Au Jus surrounding a finely portioned (so important)piece of suckling pig. Paired with Roblar’s 2009 Grassetto.
Pork floating on polenta with an amazing Au Jus
And knowing that the Olympic closing ceremonies was only 24 hours away, we managed to make room for desert and a fabulous desert wine to celebrate. Roblar’s 2010 Late Harvest Viognier.
A light and flaky pastry shell resembling a shortbread Napolean filled with cream and topped with fresh fruit and a lemony sauce.
Editor’s Notes:
Roblar Vineyards private affair is one event you don't want to miss
When one discovers a distinctive dish it seems to linger like lyrics from a song. Yet, because all great chefs have secrets as to how they create their culinary chemistry, we are forced to find recipes that emulate but can never capture the taste or the moment. Here’s to an affair I will always remember celebrated with two of our dearest friends.
Strath and Marcy Hamilton Tricoast Worldwide with James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving
Nancy Chuda is a seasoned broadcast journalist, television writer/producer, talk show host and author. Her career spans over three decades having appeared on both national and cable television.
In 1971 she authored one of America’s first low-calorie cookbooks, How To Gorge George Without Fattening Fanny, published by Hawthorn Books. Appearing as a regular guest on Dinah’s Place, Dinah Shore’s ABC daytime talk show. And later on The Johnny Carson Show, The Today Show with Barbara Walters, Merv Griffin, Phil Donahue, and David Frost. In 1972, Nancy and ABC’s Good Morning America co-produced Michael Krause produced a cable program, The Low- Calorie Gallery, based on her best selling cook book. In 1975, hired by Warner-Amex as part of a creative team, she was responsible for hosting and producing content for Columbus Then and Now, a program, the invention of QUBE, an interactive television system which played a pivotal role in the history of American cable television. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE
In 1978 she developed a series for ABC’s Good Morning America based on an article which appeared in Mother Earth News magazine. The Integral Urban House, a case study project and model for a sound urban habitat sponsored by the Farallones Institute in Berkley California was the first example of green architecture ever to be televised.
In 1979, Nancy co-produced and hosted Sunnyside a Los Angeles based public affairs program viewed on the CBS affiliate station KNXT, From 1980-1984, she appeared on KABC’s Eyewitness News as entertainment reporter and film critic.
Her environmental advocacy began when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. In 1990 she co-produced an Emmy nominated ABC Variety Special, An Evening With Friends For The Environment to benefit Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet one of the first national children’s environmental health advocacy groups in which she served as a volunteer.
Currently, she is the co-founder and President Emeritus of Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit organization established to honor the Chuda’s only child, Colette, who died in 1991 at the age of 5 from Wilm’s tumor a nonhereditary childhood cancer. She is also the co-founder of The Colette Chuda Environmental Fund, a donor-advised fund which supports major epidemiological research on children’s health.
Nancy has won numerous awards for her advocacy. In 1996, the California League of Conservation Voters Environmental Leadership Award, The Healthy Schools Heroes Award, presented to both her and her husband James Chuda by California Governor Gray Davis for their legislative efforts in securing The Healthy Schools Act which was signed into law in September, 2000. In 2003, Parent’s Magazine published an article Mom’s On A Mission and awarded Nancy for her environmental leadership for children’s environmental health.
She serves as an associate of the Director’s Council of Public Representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was appointed by President Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, to serve as a member of the National Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) a position she held for four years.
In 2010, along with her husband James she founded LuxEcoLiving.
