Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars

This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars. Tepuy Dining is named for a famous flat topped mountain in the Amazonian Jungle, and is a Venezuelan inspired Traveling Pop Up led by female chef Adriana Urbina (Food Network 2017 Chopped Champion). Tepuy was featured as one of “the best Venezuelan places to eat in NYC” in 2015 by Eater New York times. I was really intrigued about the idea of pairing Venezuelan flavors with Northwest ingredients and Hazelfern Cellars wine.

If you haven’t heard of Hazelfern Cellars before, they are a relatively new entry into the Oregon wine scene. Based in Newberg, Oregon, this family owned vineyard officially started making its small lot wines in 2014, growing from the original 5 gallons of Pinot Noir and a Portland basement has grown to over 500 cases of wine. One of the things that really stands out about Hazelfern is that head of the family and winemaker Bryan Laing is a huge food lover as well, and is really in tune with balancing flavors and textures in wine just like balancing flavors and textures in food.

That includes making sure the Hazelfern wine portfolio offers a great array of wines, from a summer hit of a easy quaffable strawberry scented Rosé to a creamy and buttery Chardonnay to some mouthwateringly rich Barbera or Cabernet Franc. For this dinner, realizing he didn’t have anything in his portfolio that would pair well with the dessert, made a Japanese plum wine from plums he had picked from the property just for the course – that’s how dedicated he is to making sure what’s in your glass and plate will always pair beautifully!
 

Here’s a look at the dinner setting too, a gorgeous barn (an equestrian stable that was never used before the family purchased this land for the wine farm) and a recap of the dinner.
 

Canapes

Cheese Yucca Cracker with Coconut Cheese and Scallop, Brown Butter

Corn and Mushroom Croquettes with Smoked Bacon Powder and Avocado Aioli

Ceviche

Seasonal Fish with cashew tigers milk, fresh raspberries, avocado aioli, brown butter crumble, Chardonnay.

For The Table

Micro Green Salad with zucchini flower romesco, amaranth and quinoa chips, pickled watermelon, citrus vinaigrette, and beet powder – I think that’s a Pinot Noir paired with it if memory serves.

Creamy Celery Root Riceless Risotto with Hero Leek and Tomato Pesto, Smoked Bacon, Yucca Puree, paired with Barbera.

Venezuelan Style Short Ribs – so much intense flavor! Paired with Cabernet Franc.

Dessert

Warm coconut cake with salted dulce de leche, passion fruit coulis, frozen whipped cream with brown butter sunflower seed and raspberry powder. Paired with Bryan’s special Japanese plum wine made special for the dinner!

If you are interested in Hazelfern’s wine (I am in love with their Barbera and already sold out for this year Cabernet Franc) they are open for tastings by appointment but also look up their social media as they do food and wine pairing events that may be open to the public such as this one was!

What’s your favorite wine to pair with food? Do you have a favorite winery that you like to get wine to pair with dinner? Would you ever attend a Venezuelan food pop up?