After four years of wine, beer and food pairings, Wendy and Rich Hess, Virginville Hotel, decided this fall was the perfect time to warm up with a harvest of artists Sept. 20.
“It’s the art of winemaking, the art of oil on canvas, and the art of culinary,” said Wendy Hess.
The Art of the Harvest dinner provided a feast of autumn’s palette that began with baby portabella mushrooms stuffed with beef and cheese and then baked. The little delicacies were served on an artist palette with wells of red pepper coulis, creamy horseradish, cabernet glaze, and cilantro pesto dipping sauces.
Bernville wine maker Tom Calvaresi served guests a Cabernet Sauvignon as a pairing for beef. The mushrooms’ earthy aroma filled the room as the waitresses brought out large trays rich in hues of reds, greens, browns and ivory.
“There’s a mystique about it. That’s the interesting part; that’s what separates the men from the boys,” said Calvaresi. “It’s the different seasonings and how they pair with the different characteristics in wine. It’s a pairing of the chef and myself.”
Virginville Hotel Chef John Warner brought bright colors to his plates from the colorful opening of the mushroom palette to a salad of yellow, purple and red roasted corn salsa over grilled romaine hearts laced with a Baco Noir balsamic glaze. He brought even more color plus height with the entree, Chicken Napoleon. Plates were stacked with boneless breaded chicken breasts, grilled tomato slices, and breaded eggplant on roasted red pepper coulis drizzled with Pino Grigio and served with bacon and chive mashed potatoes.
“It’s what I was taught in culinary school. When people get their plate, it’s like wow, it looks like a tower on their plate,” said Warner. “It’s impressive.”
Warner brought the season of pumpkins to the tables with a dessert of a pumpkin creme brulee topped with caramelized sugar. The cool rich custard with a delicate sweet glaze was light and refreshing. Calvaresi served an apple jack wine with dessert.
“Magnificent,” said Nancy Kramer, Flying Hills and former Hamburg resident, as she moved her hands about in emphasis. “Presentation, taste, pairing.”
“The marriage between the food and the wine for the first two courses was absolutely right on,” said Helenirene Kuehne, Laureldale. “It’s hard to pair a wine with a salad and that was beyond my expectations. It was really good. It had to do with the sauce, the salad dressing, but it worked. To do that, you’ve got to be pretty damn good.”
Warner said the biggest challenge is putting this all out with consistent quality, but when people tell him how much they enjoy his food it makes it worth it.
“I never worked with a painter artist,” said Warner. “I pretty much started it by the menu and Tom Calvaresi matched it with the wines and the flavors he had in his wine like the apple jack with the dessert.”
While Calvaresi knew his wines and what would work well with the ingredients the chef listed, Kempton artist Jon Bond brought his skills to the theme of the autumn harvest with a palette of gold, red and brown in one of his paintings of a rooster in a barn.
With 73 people seated in a span of two rooms, Bond worked on two paintings simultaneously so everyone could experience an artist at work. Bond chatted to his attentive audience with stories about some of his paintings such as one of a post with a wagon wheel attached on top in a breezy field. There were large gourds hanging from it swaying in the breeze. It was symbolic of his family members and their relationship.
Visions of mountains are ingrained in his memory from years of hiking. He considers the Pinnacle, the highest point in Berks County, his signature piece.
“It means you strived to be up there, to be the best, to be on the top, to strive for something bigger, higher, better. It helps me to meet my goals and strive for always something bigger and better,” said Bond.
Bond said it is a good exercise to begin to not paint something that you necessarily see in front of you, but that you can use your imagination; you could emote more feelings by painting something from memory.
Kelly Bond described her husband’s work as realistic.
When asked if she has a favorite piece she said, “My favorite painting after many years still has a mysterious old world feel to it. I wonder who lives in the white house off to the right and do they swim in the pond? Is it a morning or evening autumn day?”
Bond’s mother, Marian Bond, said she’ll always think of Jon’s kindergarten teacher telling her how Jon had gone to the blackboard and drew a perfect horse on the first day of school.
Helenirene Kuehne, John Bond’s elementary teacher, said Bond was a lot of fun, always had a different perspective on topics and demonstrated talent back then.
“He had a great eye for perspective which is unusual for an elementary child to have,” said Kuehne. “He had things very well proportionate.”
The Hess’s created an evening of a visual feast for the eyes blended with aroma and flavor for their guests and will be planning another wine pairing event in November. For more information, go to http://www.virginvillehotel.com.
To learn more about wines from Calvaresi Winery, go to http://calvaresiwinery.com, and to learn more about Bond, go to http://www.jonathanbond.com.