11th year for Appellation St. Helena’s Wine Tasting & Food Pairing Competition
St. Helena, Napa Valley, April 2022 – Appellation St. Helena (ASH) brought back its signature “bASH” event on Saturday, April 2. Approximately 250 guests enjoyed the 11th annual bASH at The Culinary Institute of America Greystone. The event is an annual wine and food pairing competition where the wines from 19 ASH member wineries were paired with savory bites prepared by teams of ‘rising star’ students at the CIA; local chefs were the judges: Michelle Mutrux, Traci Dutton and Ines Chiarello.
“The sense of fun and excitement in the air was palpable. It was a kick to be back and we exceeded our expectations. We look forward to even more excitement next year,” commented ASH Board President Katie Simpson.
“Our students got out all the tools one can imagine and I saw them become so engaged in this once-a-year challenge where only the sky is the limit. It’s amazing what a student team can get into a small bite! Their creativity and ability to communicate what they’ve learned about the wines and wineries is on such a high level, this year more than ever before,” explained Chef Lars Kronmark, who is an instructor at CIA Greystone and the liaison for the student chef teams and the ASH wineries.
In 2023 bASH will take place on April 1 again at CIA. Watch the website for details.
The winners were:
CHEF’S CHOICE
- First Place – Team 1 – Pellet Estate – Mole Negro Shortrib Sopes; chefs were Lesley Holmes and Michael O’Connell.
- Second Place – Team 2 – Unwritten Wines – Bittersweet Chocolate Dust with Midnight Moon cheese stamped with warming Moroccan spices; chefs Julia Martin and Hanna Kezia.
- Third Place – Team 17 – Monticello Vineyards | Corley Family – Duck Liver Mousse; chefs Omar Flores Salazar and Kristan Mendoza.
Fourth Place – Team 18 – Mending Wall Winery – Braised Oxtail Dumplings; chefs Pierce Wei and Collin McGowan.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
- First Place – Team 18 – Mending Wall Winery – Braised Oxtail Dumplings; chefs Pierce Wei and Collin McGowan
- Second Place – Team 17 – Monticello Vineyards | Corley Family – Duck Liver Mousse; chefs Omar Flores Salazar and Kristan Mendoza
- Third Place – Team 14 – Chase Cellars – Salmon Pinwheel in a Tzatziki Endive Canoe; chefs Dante Cairns and Noah Margy.
Attendees enjoyed tasting each wine with specially created food bites and then voted for their favorites. Participating wineries were Anomaly Vineyards, Calafia Wines, Charles Krug Winery, Chase Cellars, Ehlers Estate, Hall Wines, Mending Wall Winery, Monticello/Corley Family, Pellet Estate, Raymond Vineyard, Rombauer Vineyards, Saint Helena Winery, Salvestrin Winery, Spottswoode Winery, Taplin, The Crane Assembly, Unwritten Wines, Varozza Vineyards and Young Inglewood Vineyards.
The event also included the ASH Wine Raffle, a collection of wine from participating wineries.
ASH partnered with The Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena Chamber of Commerce, Sunshine Foods and Le Creuset.
Proceeds from the evening will go to Appellation St. Helena and the scholarship fund of the Culinary Institute of America.
St. Helena has the distinction of being the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry with Dr. Crane’s cellar founded in 1859, David Fulton’s in 1860 and Charles Krug’s in 1861. The St. Helena American Viticultural Area, or appellation, was officially approved in 1995 and in 2004, the vintners who had worked together to get the AVA approved established a group to promote the growing region, today called Appellation St. Helena. The group focuses on promoting the quality of grapes grown and wines produced in the St. Helena AVA.
Appellation St. Helena is comprised of roughly 12,000 acres, of which approximately 6,800 are planted to grapes, more than any other AVA in the Napa Valley. More than 400 different vineyards are located within the appellation and the Association has 64 members.
The boundaries form an hourglass shape, and the middle section represents the narrowest width in the Napa Valley, where the Mayacamas and Vaca Mountain ranges nearly meet. The AVA is a mosaic of alluvial fans and 21 different soil types. The soils here are created from centuries of erosion of run-off from mountain hillsides and the Napa River and its ancient tributaries.
Grape growing in the St. Helena appellation dates back to the Mexican land grants in the 1840s when General Vallejo gave Edward Bale a wedding gift of property. Bale and his bride promptly planted vineyard on their property. By 1880, over 100 people were making wine in St. Helena. While many types of grapes excel in St. Helena, the most frequently cultivated are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon Blanc.
Board members are Katie Simpson, Lesley Keffer Russell, Seth Goldfarb, Claire Hobday, Myriah Mutrux, Jack Pagendarm, Eric Risch, George Watson, Paige Cole, Torey Battuello, Julia Jinks, Sylvia Taplin and Dave Yewell.
