Eat It and Like It—Savannah Food & Wine Festival Guide Fall 2014 | Page 4

Picks of Sips
2014 Savannah Food & Wine Festival

The leaves are beginning
to fade from bright
green to brilliant shades
of red and yellow, the
smell of cider is filling
the air, and pumpkin
flavored EVERYTHING is
available at the most
surprising places. What
does that all mean?
It’s Food and Wine Festival
time! And in its second year,
the festival’s line up doesn’t
disappoint—particularly in
my favorite field: wine!
The 2014 festival is jam-packed
with great juice. Napa, New
Zealand, France, and Italy are
well represented, with more
than a hundred producers from
around the globe making appearances. As Eat It and Like It’s
resident “Cork Dork” I am here
to lay out the events, wineries,
and sips that most excite me—
the ones you should not miss!
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The happiness kicks off for me
with the Heitz Cellars Wine
Dinner hosted by Vic’s on the
River on Monday, November
10th. Heitz Cellars is based
out of Napa Valley, and produces some incredibly bold
and powerful wines—most
notably their Martha’s Vineyard
Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 2004 Martha’s Vineyard
Cabernet offered is “knock
your socks off” delicious and,
in my opinion, almost worth
the $109 ticket price by itself.
And while Cabernet is king
with Heitz Cellars, the best
sip here is the 2013 Heitz
Grignolino Rosé. Grignolino
is a fantastic, rare, and oft
mispronounced wine (Greeno-lean-o) that is known as the
“little strawberry” in its native
Italy. Crisp, refreshing, and
lovely…this is the perfect start
to the Heitz Dinner and a festival full of great wine.

Wednesday provides two
different wine dinners for
two different types of wine
drinkers. If big, bold, new
world red wine makes you
smile, look no further than the
Realm Cellars dinner at Ruth’s
Chris Steakhouse. This Napa
producer is well regarded for
both Cabernet and red Proprietary Blends. Master Sommelier and host Desi Echavarrie
has saved the best sip of the
night for last: Beckstoffer To
Kalon. This 100% Cabernet
Sauvignon is named after
the Napa Vineyard where
the grapes are grown and in
wine circles, To Kalon is quite
a heavy hitter. These wines
are lush, elegant, deep, and
almost over the top…which is
just how I like them.

On the other end of the wine
spectrum, Circa 1875 has
paired with Gerard Bertrand
for their dinner. Gerard Bertrand, recently named Europe’s
Winery of the Year, is based
in southern France and has
been a driving force in putting
beautiful Mediterranean wines
on the map. No longer is
Provence just for rosé…look for
deep, earthy, elegant wines at
this dinner.

One of my favorite wines at
the entire festival, the Seamus Pearl Pinot Gris is unlike
any other in the world. This
wine is beautifully creamy,
easy-drinking, and effortlessly
elegant—the type of wine you
could drink all day and still
feel good about when dinner
rolls around. Look for beautiful notes of toasted pineapple,
lychee, and cream—I promise
you won’t be disappointed.

Thursday sends me jubilantly
back to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse to celebrate the wines of
Savannah native James Foley
and his S