IPNC Part IV — Sunday

For us, IPNC ended with the Sunday sparkling brunch (we did not attend the grand tasting Sunday afternoon). We enjoyed five different sparkling wines — from Spain, Oregon, California, Canada, and France — with:

• Pork hash
• French toast bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream
• Eggs Benedict: classic, spinach and mushroom, shrimp and crab
• Salumi and salami selection
• Breads and pastries
• Berries and melons
• Oysters on the half shell, mignonette
• Albacore, yellowtail, and salmon sashimi
• Dungeness crab and avocado rolls
• Sunomono with shrimp
• Biscuits with pork sausage gravy or mushroom gravy

So that is the end of the IPNC 2012 food report. Don’t you want to attend?

IPNC Part III — Saturday

And the hits just keep on coming. Another wonderful breakfast (see Friday).

Today our assigned groups were put on buses and taken to a winery for a tour, lunch, and wine tasting with four different winemakers. We did not know where we were going in advance. We were fortunate enough to  go to Anne Amie with our bus host and wine rock star Rollin Soles from ROCO. It was definitely a different experience than Counter Culture on Thursday night, but just as much fun. The view from Anne Amie never gets old.

We tasted wines with winemakers from four wineries: Anne Amie, La Crema, ROCO, and Ransom. Each was excellent.

Lunch followed the wine tasting. Again, a fortunate winery assignment because our lunch chef was Seis Kamamura from Michael Mina's Burgundy-inspired restaurant  RN74 in Seattle (RN74 is the main road that runs north and south through Burgundy). Another luscious menu:

• Appetizers: smoked salmon toast with pickled pearl onion, capers, dill; wild mushroom ragout with bone marrow; vichyssoise with creme fraiche, chive oil
• Smoked chicken breast, sweet corn, tomato, goat cheese
• Braised duck breast, maitake mushrooms
• Peach tart, roasted almonds, créme Chantilly

We were so engrossed in our lovely meal that I forgot to take photos. But it looked as good as it tasted.

Saturday night was the big salmon bake. Everyone talked up the salmon bake as the premiere event. It exceeded expectations.

The menu:

• Chinook salmon with celery root and gremolata
• Bavette steak with blistered Padrón peppers, cherry tomatoes, mint
• Pork loin with peach mostarda
• Farro salad with olives, cherry tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese, sauce vert
• Green bean and yellow bean salad with candied hazelnuts, carmelized onions, hazelnut viaigrette
• Greens with grilled nectarines, apricots, and peaches; goat cheese, Pinot Noir vinaigrette
• Roasted Chioggia beets with baby spinach, baby rainbow carrots, blue cheese
• Shelling bean ragout with mushrooms and sweet peppers
• Beluga lentil salad with roasted fennel, lemon cucumbers, fines herbes

Then, the dessert buffet. What a buffet! 

• Chocolate raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting
• Coconut sticky rice with blackberry coulis
• Mixed berry cobbler
• Cherry jubilee floats
• Peach Melba floats
• Nectarine whiskey pie pops
• Lemon lavender blueberry tarts
• Blue cheese hazelnut plum strudel
• Goat cheese panna cotta with poached peaches
• Mexican chocolate cream puffs with sea salt caramel
• Red velvet cake
• Almond apricot vol au vent
• Walnut coffee whoopie pies
• Oregon cheese board, crackers, flatbread

IPNC Part II —Friday

The meals, which focus on high-quality Oregon products, are a highlight of IPNC.

Breakfast is a treat, with bowls of fresh Oregon blueberries, raspberries, and marionberries; granola; hazelnuts; pastries from the likes of Pearl Bakery in Portland; yogurt; bacon and sausage; and hard-boiled eggs.

Scott Wright from Scott Paul Wines

For lunches and dinners, the organizers cleverly sit a winemaker at each table to give participants some one-on-one time with the people who make what we are drinking. Some wines are on the tables to start. As if by magic, more and more wine from various makers appears.

For Friday lunch, we fortuitously sat at the Scott Paul Wines table with owner Scott Wright and winemaker Kelley Fox (it was great to see so many women winemakers at this event). Friday lunch:

• Dungeness Crab Louie, cucumber, gooseberries, sorrell
• Antipasto plate with coppa, braseola, chorizo and cacciatore; albacore tuna; mozzarella; watermelon and cherry tomato salad; fingerling potato salad; roasted corn and pepper salad; baguette
• Chocolate fish with red currants

Antipasto plate

The Grand Dinner on Friday night was also a stunner. We sat with Moe and Flora Momtazi, delightful people, whose biodynamically produced wines from Maysara Winery are fabulous and a perfect complement to the meal.

• Vichyssoise with sweet onion, corn and lobster salad, foie gras, aged balsamic vinaigrette
• Rabbit fricassee, English peas, harissa polenta
• Rack lamb chops and cevapcici (sausage) with sour cherry relish; green bean salad with pickled cherries, hazelnuts, black currant vinaigrette, crisp shallots; rye crouton with sheep’s milk cheese
• Olive oil tea cake, hibiscus tea mousse, fresh and confit cherries

The food was beautiful as well as delicious

Successfully serving hundreds of people was an art in itself

Every meal included Stumptown Coffee and Smith Tea.

Throughout the weekend, chefs, kitchen staff, sommeliers, and servers we top-notch: professional and friendly while serving 1,000 happy diners.

IPNC Part I — Thursday

A whole weekend of Pinot Noir. That is the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon. We attended this year because Mike gave a talk at the University of Pinot. Let me say right here that this was the best organized event I have ever attended. Ever.

IPNC celebrates not only Pinot Noir, but astounding food by chefs from the Northwest. You can see the full list on the IPNC Web site. We know that our family and friends often like to know what is on the menu, so here is a taste (pun intended).

Thursday, we went to the Anne Amie Vineyards Counter Culture, billed as “a celebration of international wine and urban street food.” The food was paired with wines mostly from Oregon, but also with some from California, Canada, and New Zealand. We ate, in random order:

Porchetta at Counter Culture

• Classic yakitori
• Mumbai grilled sandwiches
• Pinot Noir sangria popsicles
• Bacon butterscotch chip cookies with cream cheese icing
• Chicken liver mousse on crostini with blackberry compote
• Smoked beef tongue sandwiches (full disclosure: Sue did not eat beef tongue)
• Salted caramel ice cream and apricot ice cream
• Grilled pork loin skewers with peanut sauce and cucumber relish
• Pork taco with pineapple, salsa de arbol, onions, cilantro
• Porchetta with peaches
• Braised beef sliders with blue cheese and carmelized onions
• Waffle with gorgonzola dolce and raspberry
• Lamb kebabs with olive-tomato relish

We are off to a good start. This is the first of four IPNC reports. Stay tuned.