Savoring the Central Coast 

The simple but oh-so-true edict that “what grows together goes together” turned into a love letter to the bounty of the Central Coast at this week’s SAMsARA X Paloma Wine Dinner. The thoughtfully curated menu made for an exceptionally delightful evening at La Paloma on Wednesday, March 31, pairing Chef John Parker’s plated five-course dinner with Winemaker Matt Brady’s stellar selections and a lively group of culinary enthusiasts adding even more fun to the mix. 

“Matt was really a big push in making this thing happen,” said Parker. “He approached me originally and said, ‘Hey, I’d really love to do a wine dinner with SAMsARA.’ And then he’s like, ‘I think we pair really well.’ And from then, we just started talking about it, slowly, brainstorming on it, and we got to try the wines and a really, truly incredible product. And it was really fun to build a menu around it and really highlight the wines and they do — it all worked out pretty well.”

It sure did.

The first course paired SAMsARA’s Grenache 2022, Spear Vineyard — served chilled, which is a bit unusual, as is starting with a red wine — with Milliken Farms Japanese sweet potato, brown-sugar barbecue sauce, aioli, pickled ginger, sesame, and scallion. It was a deliciously textured dish with the hearty, starchy sweetness of the potato contrasting nicely with the light crunchiness on top. 

Next up was a lovely, light chardonnay 2022, Zotovich Vineyard, singing a zingy duet with Tutti Frutti sugar snap peas, crispy guanciale, aged pecorino, and rose dressing. Brady described it as a “Chablis-style chardonnay that has that just super food-friendly, fresh, bright acidity, you know, super clean and fresh. Just like the course, it screams spring.” It also screamed “tasty,” with the slight crunch of the snap peas and the savory saltiness of the guanciale elevating this course to the next level. 

The third course paired SAMsARA’s pinot noir 2022, Bentrock Vineyard, with a savory and hearty grilled oyster mushroom skewer, with Drake farms chèvre, green goddess dressing, and toasted pepita. I nicknamed this one the “vegetarian’s best friend” because the grilled oyster mushrooms were so flavorful that this could easily have been a satisfying main dish. The foot-stomped pinot noir was probably my favorite wine of the night as well (with stiff competition from the others), from what Brady described as “one of the rock-star, A-plus vineyards of our area.”

The SAMsARA syrah 2021, Zotovich Vineyard, Snake River Farms, was also a fabulous match for Wagyu tri-tip, charred cabbage, peppercorn au poivre sauce, and chive. This was a very generous plate, which I envisioned taking home leftovers from before I dug in and discovered it was so good I ate the whole thing!

Our final course was a lovely spring finale, matching SAMsARA’s blanc de blanc 2023, Sta. Rita Hills bubbles with a citrus tart made with grapefruit curd, graham-cracker crust, toasted meringue, and white chocolate pearls. As someone who doesn’t usually bother with dessert that’s not chocolate, I made an exception for this one, and it made a lovely happy ending to an equally lovely night. 

Keep an eye out for future pairing evenings at @samsarawineco and @lapalomasb.