Wine festival lands at Keystone this weekend

Every wine has a story behind it, and the storytellers are in town this weekend.

From Argentine Malbecs and French Pinot Noir to Spanish Rioja and Australian Shiraz, wines from all over the world — over 200 of them, in fact — will be on hand for sipping, comparison and enjoyment during Keystone's annual Uncorked Wine Festival at River Run.

If you like wine, you should go. If you love wine, you'd be crazy to miss it. This is the biggest wine event in Summit County each year, and it brings vintners, distributors, sommeliers and other wine experts together in a two-day celebration of all things fermented grape. Most of the action takes place on the River Run Plaza during Saturday's Grand Tasting, held from 1-5 p.m. There, booths from distributors and wineries are set up with folks who know a good deal about each bottle. They provide a splash in the glass you've been provided with your ticket, and you do that wine-tasting thing: sniff, swirl, sip — then look at your partner and either wrinkle your nose or go “mmmm ... Where can we get more of this?”

But how does one go about tasting so many wines without ending up on the floor? It's simple: You don't. In fact, it helps to make a plan before going to determine where you'd like to keep your focus. That's a suggestion from Michelle Lindberg, a wine specialist with Republic National Distributing — a major sponsor of the event and a company that provides wines to many local restaurants and liquor stores.

“You do have to be careful how much you drink; it can become overwhelming,” Lindberg said. “My method is that any time I'm tasting more than five or six wines at a time, I spit them out. You can get the full experience just by tasting and smelling.”

Another technique is to taste and swallow only small amounts, pace yourself, and drink water in between. Each booth set up during the Grand Tasting has a bucket for, er, unwanted wine, as well as pitchers of water for drinking or rinsing your glass. But to make it even simpler, Lindberg suggests picking one or two particular types of wine and zeroing in on them during the tasting.

“Do your research ahead of time on things you want to taste,” she said. “You could say you're going to try every Sauvignon Blanc and get to know the difference between the Napas and the Sonomas. Or you can just do Oregon wines, or wines from France.”

Another way to go is to focus on price, Lindberg suggests. What's the point in trying lots of wines you can't afford to buy later? If your price point is the $10 bottle, she suggests, try only those. Whatever you do, you don't want to burn out too fast.

“There comes a point where you actually have palate fatigue — or tanning overload,” Lindberg said. “So go in with a purpose — you can't taste everything.”

Seminars

In addition to the Grand Tasting, the Keystone Neighbourhood Company — which is presenting the event — has a new “Uncorked Wine Garden” this year, where those holding Grand Tasting tickets can have a glass, relax and listen to the music of Lisa Bell. For those looking to deepen their knowledge of wine, Uncorked has three different seminars: One on organic wines, another on Champagnes and sparkling wines and a third focused on women in wine.

This last was the idea of National's Lindberg, who is currently based out of Aspen but used to work in LA. There, she said she put together a wine-tasting group of women in the industry, and wanted to replicate it for the Keystone festival.

“The seminar came out of research showing that women buy more wine than men in the course of being out and shopping for groceries,” Lindberg said. Within the food and beverage industry, she said, more women have risen through the ranks as wine experts in what used to be a male-dominated arena. As wine consumers, she said, women are much more likely to speak up about their likes and dislikes than they were in the past. Remember those days when the sommelier gave the first taste to the man at the table and ignored the woman? Forget about that.

“There's also research showing that women are really good tasters,” Lindberg said. “But they can sometimes by shy about expressing their opinion. They think they don't know enough or won't say what they're experiencing.”

The seminar, which is open to men as well, will feature women winemakers, sommeliers and other wine pros “exploring what they like about wine,” she said.

Pairing dinners

There may be no better way to truly experience wine than in a well put-together pairing dinner, and this year's Uncorked has two. The first is tonight at Keystone Ranch, where chefs have prepared a four-course menu to accompany wines from Brassfield Estates, a winery from the relatively new northern California's viticultural area known as High Valley.

Saturday, Napa's Frog's Leap Winery is the pairing partner for a four-course seafood dinner at the Summit Seafood Company. The menu features a sumptuous lineup of lobster, crab, buffalo and calamari — each with its own pairing from Frog's Leap. Figuring out what goes with what is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

“My job is terrible,” lamented Sara O'Brien, food and beverage manager for Summit Seafood Company. “Frog's Leap gave us samples, I sat down with the chef (James Tibor) and tasted them all. Then we came up with a flavor profile for each wine and the chef came back with ideas.”

O'Brien said she was particularly wowed by the pairing of a Frog's Leap Merlot with a Hawaiian tuna dish served with lingonberries and mushrooms, mint and lemon.

“It just really popped with that Merlot,” she said. “The sauce, the pasta — I can't quit eating it, it's so good.”

GM Luke Slottow said it's a mistake to think only white goes with fish.

“The right red can go very well with fish,” he said.

For the Frog's Leap dinner, Slottow said the son of the winemaker will be on hand to speak about each bottle and give background.

“It's always fun to have a member of a winemaker's family,” he said. “They know the history, the grapes and how it all came to fruition.”

Frog's Leap-Summit Seafood Company dinner menu

Frog's Leap Dinner-1