You say your search for the fluffiest champagne powder is taking too much time from your pursuit of the world’s silkiest Champagne sauce and its bubbly ingredients.
Why not sate both appetites on the same trip? Numerous Rocky Mountain resorts are offering skiing gourmands off-the-slope gustatory adventures to match the challenge of some of the world’s top alpine runs.
As the competition for the vacation dollar increases, ski resorts are looking for activities that can supplement the traditional appeal of lots of snow and skiable terrain.
In an era when the $40 lift ticket is almost considered a bargain, chili and burgers don’t make it as resort food. So, many resorts have tried to capitalize on a growing demand for more sophisticated food.
Last season more than 40 food and wine events were held in Colorado alone, ranging from winemakers’ dinners held at a single restaurant to the Taste of Vail, where more than 30 of the resort’s top restaurants and more than 50 winemakers participated in the festival.
Snowbird kicks off the gourmet skiing season with its 4th annual Winterfest, a three-day celebration the first weekend in December. This year’s event (Dec. 6-8) features seminar/tastings on such topics as Oregon pinot noirs, classic single malt Scotch and “Wine, Civilization & the Arts.”
Utah’s usually reliable early snow means a day of skiing can be capped with an evening spent tasting fine wines and talking with the winemakers. If you aren’t in top skiing shape or if the snow isn’t quite up to par (as it wasn’t last season), there are seminars, luncheons and cooking demonstrations during the day.
Friday and Saturday evenings bring the Winterfest Apres Ski reception in the Cliff Lodge. More than 30 wineries pour their libations, and there is more good food than anyone could possibly need. In fact, the two-hour reception easily could replace dinner for most people. But don’t let all the Domaine Chandon and Jordan cabernet sway you.
Special winery dinners are offered on Friday and Saturday nights; make a point to partake of at least one. One of last season’s best matched the superb cuisine of the Snowbird Lodge Club’s chef, Fred Henion, and featured Veuve Clicquot, Landmark Vineyards, Fisher Vineyards and Hine cognac. (Warm quail with herbs, served with 1985 Veuve Clicquot rose reserve; cherry stuffed lamb served with ’92 single-vineyard cabernet from Fisher Vineyards–what incredible calories to burn off the next day on the mountain.)
Snowbird offers special packages for Winterfest that include seven of the seminars, two lunches, both receptions and two days of skiing for $240. The same package plus lodging starts at $339, per person double occupancy. The winery dinners are extra ($65-$80, depending on the meal and the winery), but last season’s were worth every penny.
Jan. 21 brings Taos’ Winter Wine Festival, the oldest of the food and wine celebrations. This will be the 11th year for a festival that grew out of an autumn visit to Shafer Vineyards by several members of the Taos staff, including Chris Stagg, director of marketing for Taos Ski Valley.
“As we sampled wines after the crush,” Stagg said, “we thought how great it would be to do the same thing after a day of skiing, so we invited the winemakers to come skiing the next season.
“Four–Shafer, Pine Ridge, Acacia and Phelps–took us up on it, and they brought along some of their wines. It was so successful that it rapidly outgrew the small group who started it.
“We made it an annual thing, and it has grown every year.”
This season more than 20 winemakers will be participating, including Joseph Phelps, Calera and Shafer.
Tastings and seminars on such subjects as dessert wines and the future of wine begin at various sites at the base of the mountain at 3 p.m. And they provide a delicious anesthetic for muscles aching from the day’s skiing.
In the evening, three or four winemaker dinners are spread between the ski valley and the town so there will be one nearby regardless of where you are staying. The most difficult thing is choosing among them.
Among the best options are the annual pairing of French wines with the superb cuisine of chef Patrick Lambert at Doc Martin’s in the Taos Inn and chef Harold Orner’s excellent game preparations coupled with fine cabernets at the Hondo Restaurant in the Inn at Snakedance. Both restaurants have been honored by Wine Spectator magazine for their excellent cellars. Prices vary depending on the restaurant and the wines.
“Le Grande Tasting” brings all the wineries together with many of the area’s restaurateurs at the base of the mountain on the Friday of festival week. For $15, you can graze until you are stuffed and leave with a souvenir glass besides. Prices for the other events and dinners vary depending on the subject and location.
Many resorts sponsor periodic winemaker’s dinners throughout the season. One example is Steamboat Springs, which plans to hold the first of several winemaker dinners Feb. 27 at Ragnar’s, the on-mountain restaurant.
The ride up the mountain from the top of the gondola to Ragnar’s serves only to whet the appetite. Step from the cold mountain air into the warm, pine-finished restaurant where you are greeted by classical guitar music and the first of seven or eight wines from a single winery that will be paired with five or six courses of the outstanding cuisine of chef Morten Hoj.
In keeping with its “family image,” Steamboat offers a wineless version of the meal for those under legal drinking age for $40; the tab with wine runs $75. And if the kids are really lucky, they get the added thrill of riding up the mountain with the driver in the cab of the Snowcat.
Another major participant is Copper Mountain with its Copper Classics, a series of food and wine events that begins Dec. 22 with a holiday-themed dinner.
One unfortunate note for this season: Telluride has dropped its Taste of Telluride. Mike Shim-Konis, director of communications at Telluride, said the resort just couldn’t get all the commitments and arrangements lined up for this season. A mini version, however, is plannned to accompany the launch of the resort’s new gondola on Dec. 20.
Another source to check is your favorite ski resort restaurant. For example, L’Apogee in Steamboat Springs is planning to have a winemaker’s dinner the first Friday of each month starting in November, and the Hotel Jerome in Aspen has scheduled Aspen Vintage Lunches for each Wednesday in ski season.
The Taste of Vail is the finale of ski season gourmet festivals, and–like everything Vail does–it operates on a grand scale. In six years, the Taste of Vail has become the largest of the regularly scheduled events.
The Apres Ski Tasting opens the “Taste” on Thursday afternoon, and the event gets into full swing the following day with seminars, cooking demonstrations and a mountaintop picnic to fill the gaps between runs down the mountain.
Last year’s version capped Friday’s events with a tasting of spectacular cognacs (such as Hennessy XO and Paradis) and cigars.
Although the final lineup has not been completed, the ’97 version (April 3-5) has more than 30 restaurants lined up to host winemaker’s dinners, including some of the best in the area such as Mirabelle and Beano’s Cabin from Beaver Creek and Terra Bistro and Sweet Basil in Vail.
More than 60 wineries (De Loach, Iron Horse and Sonoma-Cutrer among them) will be on hand to pour their vintages.
Taste of Vail packages will be available, but prices have not been set yet. Last year’s full event package was $250 and included the apres-ski tasting, seminars, mountaintop picnic and the grand tasting on the final night. Lodging and lift tickets were extra.
Undoubtedly, there are other tasting events spread among the ski resorts. Check with your favorite to see what it is offering.
DETAILS ON WINE/FOOD EVENTS
Here is a list of a few of the many wine/food events on the schedule at resorts for this coming ski season. Undoubtedly there are many others. Check with the resort or restaurant about plans.
Dec. 6-8: Winterfest, Snowbird, Utah; 801-742-2222, ext. 4080.
Jan. 21-26: Taos Food & Wine Festival, Taos, N.M.; 505-776-2291.
April 3-5: Taste of Vail, Vail, Colo.; 800-525-2257 (reservations) or 800-341-1494 (Taste information).
Copper Classics: A series of distinctive food and drink pairings starting with holiday dinner Dec. 22, Copper Mountain Resort, Colo.; 800-458-8386.
L’Apogee Winemakers dinners: First Friday of the month starting in December, L’Apogee Restaurant, Steamboat Springs, Colo.; 970-879-1919.
Steamboat Winemakers Dinners: Ragnar’s Restaurant, starting Feb. 27, Steamboat Springs, Colo., 800-922-2722 (reservations).
Vintage Aspen Lunches: Hotel Jerome, weekly starting Nov. 27, Aspen, Colo.; 800-331-7213.
