By Tammy Quackerbush
Napa Valley winery Chateau Montelena on Sept. 6 marked the beginning of the harvest by inviting San Francisco-based Korean food truck Seoul on Wheels to feed tourists and employees.
For three midday hours, Julia Yoon and her Seoul on Wheels team served complimentary bulgogi (made with ribeye steak), chicken, spicy pork and tofu Korean tacos to guests and Chateau Montelena staff.
Chateau Montelena doesn’t need the “street cred” of a Korean taco truck to sell wine. The winery earned its “cred” more than 30 years ago in what is known as the Judgment of Paris or the Paris Tasting of 1976.
The winery’s 1973 chardonnay won first place in a blind tasting over more well-established French Burgundy wines. This event truly shook the wine world and cemented Chateau Montelena’s reputation as a producer of first class wine.
However, such a pedigree in Napa Valley wine history may intimidate newer, younger wine enthusiasts.
George Blanckensee, Chateau Montelena’s event planner, said in an email interview, “We did this as an opportunity to generate additional traffic to our tasting room, and offer our clients something unique that’s been hot in the metropolitan areas lately. We chose Seoul on Wheels after I scouted out the numerous food trucks.”
Bulgogi Taco
Blackensee recommends these pairings of wine with Korean tacos:
- Bulgogi with Napa cabernet sauvignon.
- Spicy pork with zinfandel.
- Grilled chicken with fruit-forward, minimal-oak chardonnay.
Despite these interesting Korean taco and wine pairing recommendations, the Seoul on Wheel’s truck was set up over 100 yards away from the winery’s tasting room so there was no way for guests to have a glass of wine with their tacos and decide for themselves which pairings best complemented the tacos and their own palates.
Despite that shortcoming, an event like this can show customers who normally save such wine for only the most special occasions that wine is meant for drinking and can complement a perfectly grilled filet mignon as well as a Korean spicy pork taco.
Blanckensee went on to say, “We did find it successful; and may do it again. The costs of operating and getting here from the City (San Francisco) were expensive, and that may be impactful on that decision for next year.”
- Julia Yoon, Chef for Seoul on Wheels
To finish this fall feasting, Chateau Montelena on Oct. 4 will host San Francisco-based Indian food truck Curry Up Now.
While this feast was free, wine tasting at Chateau Montelena isn’t. The winery offers tastes of five wines for $20:
Riesling, Potter Valley, 2010. This was the first wine I tasted on Montelena’s wine tasting list list. As I tasted this wine, my tongue discovered a light floral note of honeysuckle along with orange and lime. It was beautiful to taste on its own but I really wish I had a bowl of bibimbap or one of Seoul on Wheel’s dakkalbi tacos in the tasting room to confirm on site that the riesling would pair up with it very well. ($25 a bottle.)
Chardonnay, Napa Valley, 2009. It’s the first year Chateau Montelena used limited quantities of several Dijon clones of this grape variety. It has a pale yellow color, like hay or the golden grass commonly found on California hills during our long, rain-free summers. The pale color is due to, in part, aging in neutral oak barrels, rather than a newer oak. It is a fruit-forward chardonnay. It tasted of white peach, rambutan, mandarin oranges and a slight hint of toasted almonds. ($50)
Zinfandel, Montelena Estate, 2007. It had a bright red color, pleasant mouthfeel and no bite. I detected tobacco and cedar on the nose, and my tongue tasted some blackberry and a hint of vanilla. ($30)
Cabernet sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2006. This wine was much deeper in color than the 2007 zinfandel. I tasted hints of dark chocolate and cherry. But it’s not your grandmother’s chocolate-covered cordials, thanks to the overtones of leather and rose. ($49)
Cabernet sauvignon, Montelena Estate, 2007. I can’t help but compare this cabernet to its elder in this tasting. This wine had a more intense crimson color and was bold on the olfactory bulb. I’d compare the 2007 cab mouthfeel to a glass of milk while the 2006 cab was much thinner. Hyperbole, maybe. But tasting one after the other, I immediately noticed the fuller mouth-coat of the 2007. ($135)
Chateau Montelena is located at 1429 Tubbs Lane, just north of the upper Napa Valley city of Calistoga.
