Christine Hanna - The Winemaker Cooks: Menus, Parties, and Pairings

Every Friday evening when I was a young girl, my parents loaded me, my four siblings, and the dog into our station wagon with the faux wood panels for the trek from our home in San Francisco to the farm in Sonoma County. My father had found twelve acres near Sebastopol, complete with cows, chickens, and an old barn, and it was there that we escaped our foggy weekday city life. On Saturday mornings, our first guests would arrive, families with children near our ages. I remember slicing homegrown tomatoes, making pesto, and marinating chicken with lemon and olive oil. There was plenty of wine for the grown-ups, and we kids forded the creek and chased the chickens around the property. Afternoons turned into evenings, and we all forged life-long friendships.

My father planted grapevines alongside the orchard and the vegetable garden, and we began to make our own wine, taking turns with the hand-cranked press and punching down the cap. A few years later, he hired a winemaker and bought more acreage, and Hanna Winery was born. In the early nineties, I began to work full time at the winery, at first traveling the country to sell our wines, then gradually taking over the management of the business. Someone in the family needed to take a daily role, and my father was still a busy heart surgeon in San Francisco.

When I first moved to the wine country from the city, I was amazed at how the sidewalks rolled up in the evenings. After a 7 P.M. dinner reservation, there wasnt anything else to do. Cafes didnt stay open for an after-dinner espresso, there certainly werent any nightclubs to dance away my dessert, and the latest movie screened at 8:30 P.M. What I soon learned was that wine country social life revolves around inviting people into your home. Dinner parties began with a glass of wine on the terrace overlooking the setting sun on the grapevines. A leisurely dinner followed, stretching late into the evening with a final glass of wine around the fireplace, either indoors or out.

So I began to invite my new friends over for dinner. I started with my most comfortable menu repertoire, and took advantage of my lovely first house in Healdsburg, a Craftsman cottage with a huge backyard to make up for its diminutive rooms. Spring, summer, and fall, Id set a table outside underneath a hundred-year-old Mission fig tree, and wed watch the stars and enjoy our evening. Winter meals were more challenging, as only six could fit comfortably in the Douglas-fir-paneled dining room. However, it was at one of those very dinner parties that my husband-to-be and I first knew we would end up together, so sometimes small spaces make for the most intimate circumstances!

A year or so later, Jake and I moved from town to a country property in Alexander Valley, just minutes from Hanna Winerys second tasting room and vineyard. We now had two expanding wine clubs and a burgeoning visitor count, along with our wholesale accounts across the country. I wanted a peaceful place to come home to, with room to both relax and entertain. Our new home came with its own Cabernet vineyard, room for vast gardens, and plenty of space for indoor entertaining as well. Somehow, we were undaunted by the fact that the property and the house had been all but abandoned for decades, and that the plumbing, electrical, septic, and foundation all had to be redone. Talk about rose-colored glasses! But with two stone fireplaces, high ceilings, and lots of space, its charm and potential were undeniable. I was sure we could return it to its former glory. We jumped in and began a multiyear process of restoring the old house, and did much of the work ourselves. We put together a makeshift kitchen first, of course. Not my dream kitchen by a long shot, but at least we had a place to cook and clean up in between work sessions.

Once the renovation dust had settled, I got back to cooking. My menus moved from standard repertoire to experimentation, using ingredients Id pick up at the Saturday farmers market. I started cooking like a California chef, organizing menus around what was freshest. And, I began to cook by looking through the vintners lens, building menus around Hanna Winerys newest wine release. In the spring, the first of the vintage unoaked Sauvignon Blanc would take center stage, and the fava beans and ramps and young asparagus I found at the farmers market just happened to pair beautifully. In the fall, when the nights got a little cooler, the fuller autumnal flavors of figs and butternut squash made fall-release reds like Zinfandel and Merlot sing.

Soon I was doing not just dinner parties, but Sunday brunches, summer pool parties with pizzas on the grill, elegant baby showers, and everything in between. And since Im a busy working mother, I learned how to do them efficiently, with as much done ahead of time as possible so I could spend time with my guests and not be harried. As a guest, theres nothing more uncomfortable than feeling that your host is stressed out and overwhelmed.

I began to share my recipes with Hanna Winerys wine clubs and serve them at winery events. Soon, I had features in Food & Wine, Savor, and in Wine Country. I began to teach cooking classes that gave equal billing to wine pairing, and the idea for this book was born. My students were couples and singles who wanted to entertain with confidence and grace. Our three-hour classes flew by, with lots of questions and laughter along the way. It occurred to me that wine country entertaining had more to do with a style of entertaining than simply a sense of place. Anyone, no matter where he or she lives, could entertain with seasonal ingredients, paired beautifully with wines.

In this book, Ill show you how to entertain wine country style, with its hallmark of casual elegance. The menus range from informal pizza parties to dinners worthy of entertaining your boss. The book is organized by season, and incorporates seasonal food ingredients as well as wines into each menu. Each section begins with whats ready to pick in the garden or is available at the local farm stand. Youll also get the inside scoop on seasonal activities in the vineyard, and whats being bottled and released in the cellar.