• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Noshing With the Nolands

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Contact
  • Work With Me
  • How-To
  • About
  • eBooks

Home » Dining Out » Ravenswood Wines – Meeting The Godfather of Zin

Ravenswood Wines – Meeting The Godfather of Zin

July 26, 2014 by Tara Noland 3 Comments

0 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

I was invited to an amazing event at The Wine Cellar in downtown Calgary. To dine with the iconic “Godfather of Zin”, Joel Peterson, the founder of Ravenswood wines.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

The event was an intimate dining experience in The Cellar in downtown Calgary during The Stampede and catered by Murreita’s. When I first arrived we were given a lovely Ravenswood Chardonnay to enjoy. This wine is a crowd pleaser, round and lovely, great bang for your buck and would be perfect for your next BBQ!!

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Subscribe to our emails!

Sign up today for free and be the first to get notified on new updates on delicious recipes, reviews and more.

We were seated and Joel began to speak. He is a riveting speaker, filled with countless stories from his early years to the present day. While he was speaking my mind meandered back to my childhood as my father had an intense love of wines and would have loved to have met a man as fascinating as Joel. From the very early age of 10, Joel was immersed into the world of wine. Both of his parents where chemists and that is where his early career would also be, but mother eventually decided to opt to stay home though to raise her family. She began reading recipes and cooking meals from all over the world. Dad started researching wines, hunting down hard to find French wines back in 1951. Eventually ordering wines from a catalogue from France. With all this enthusiasm for wines this led Joel’s father to create a wine newsletter, which was the first in Califonia!!

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Dad couldn’t quite find the right words for the newsletter so this is where the young Joel came in. From the age of 10 Joel and his dad researched together, smelling the aromas of wines and then fruits to decipher the right words to describe them. Joel could taste the wine but had a spittoon that was measured my dad afterwards!! He recalls these stories with laughter and a sparkle in his eyes of the fond memories of his parents.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

We started to dine on a delicious and creamy West Coast Chowder with a Charred Jalapeno Coulis while being served first Besieged and then Lodi Zinfandel. I will start with Besieged as that was what actually the whole event was about. Joel’s brand new wine. So brand new that we were the first in Canada to try any. Quite the honor!!

“Under the threatening sky, besieged by rain clouds, lightning glinting in the hills,” winemaker Joel Peterson recounts the mood as he worked alone to collect grapes destined for one of his debut wines. This wine is in honor of his very first harvest which was back in 1976 and of course was a zinfandel!! The wine is a full bodied blend that is rich, dark and full flavored, lending itself to easy sipping, very enjoyable with many foods!!

Also served was the Lodi Zinfandel. This wine is great tasting, juicy with the right amount of oak, easily affordable and is very food friendly also.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Onto the next course, a gorgeous juicy Alberta AAA Sirloin Steak with a Toasted Baguette and perfectly cooked frites. To accompany this delicious meal were more stories about the chemistry of the grape by Joel and two more wines, Belloni Zinfandel and Teldeschi Zinfandel.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Belloni is a classic Zinfandel with dark fruit flavors and velvety tannins, it can be enjoyed now or up to 10 years storage. Teldeschi is another Zinfandel that is full of fruit flavors, accompanies lovely with the steak at hand and would be great with so many foods.  Both of these wines are a little bit pricier, coming in at the mid $40 mark.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Dessert was a Flourless Chocolate Brownie with Espresso Semi Freddo, Strawberry Citrus Wine Coulis.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

The family of Ravenswood wines.

Ravenswood Wines by Noshing With The Nolands

Ravenswood Wines – Meeting the Godfather of Zin

Here is the whole gang from the event, there I am on the far left. I would love to thank Joel for his wonderful prose on a subject that he is so educated on and for the fantastic wines that he has made and keeps making.  Many, many that I have enjoyed over the years. Also to everyone connected with Ravenswood, The Cellar and Murrietta’s for this amazing afternoon. It was very surreal for me and a memorable event.

Ravenwoods Wine by Noshing With The Nolands

Here is the star of the show and when available I will be indulging in this again. I love their motto of “No Wimpy Wines”!!  CHEERS!!

0 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Filed Under: Dining Out, Wines Tagged With: dining out, Ravenswood, wine

« Jerk Chicken and Slaw for #WeekdaySupper
Scratch Brownies »

Comments

  1. Martin D. Redmond says

    July 26, 2014 at 7:00 pm

    Ha, ha….you should have known you’d hear from your #SS wine guy;-). Ravenswood makes some great Zin! As I recall I’ve recommended for an event or two. I really should recommend more often because they offer great value and you pointed out. I’ve met Joel a couple of times. Great guy! But I know his son Morgan better because we’re member of his wine club. He may be a better winemaker than his old man! Sounds like a fun evening!

    Reply
  2. Noshing with the Nolands says

    July 27, 2014 at 9:04 am

    Thank you so much for coming over Martin, I am by far a wine aficionado like you are!! One thing I know about wine is that I like it, LOL!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi there! I am Tara and the founder of Noshing With The Nolands. This is our family site where we love to share with you all of our cooking, baking, dining, tips, tricks, and more. Come and meet the whole team behind the scenes.

Subscribe to our emails!

Sign up today for free and be the first to get notified on new updates on delicious recipes, reviews and more.

Get our BEST CANNING RECIPES EBOOK!!

About Us

We are passionate foodies here in Alberta, Canada that also love to travel, dine out and investigate in all that is new!! Read More…

Privacy Policy

Never miss a delicious recipe, subscribe to our emails

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 · Noshing with the Nolands · Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in