Collect a group of friends, pick a date, eat, learn, drink.

Overview

Interested in immersing yourself in the best of Colorado Wine & Food? Contact us to arrange one of our Colorado Food & Wine Educational Dinners in Paonia, CO.

Colorado’s North Fork Valley has a unique history and story that helps to inform both the Artisan wines it produces and the fresh, hearty local foods it grows.

We will start the afternoon with a talk that discusses the history, climate and wine styles of the area. This will include handouts and slides and will take place at the beautiful Fresh and Wyld farmhouse in Paonia.

This will be followed immediately by an interactive tasting of the North Fork region’s fine wines. Executive Wine Sommelier Tynan Szvetecz will walk you through a technical evaluation of each wine and encourage questions and observations from the group. This will include local cheese, bread and other hors d’oeuvres.

Local Chef Dava Parr will then prepare a five-course meal that will be paired by Mr. Szvetecz to wines from the region. Dinner will be fun and engaging – as Ms. Parr and Mr. Szvetecz will discuss the food and the wines in an intimate farmhouse setting.

This Educational Dinner can take place on a day of your choosing throughout the summer months.

The Talk

The 45 minute talk will give everyone an overview of Colorado wine, and you will leave with a solid understanding of why the North Fork is producing unique, artisan wines.

The talk will cover:

  • How wine arrived in Colorado, and the North Fork Valley in particular
  • Wine growing regions of Colorado
  • Easy to understand climate analysis of Colorado wine regions and a look at how the North Fork differs from the rest of the state
  • The grapes that grow the best in this climate
  • An introduction to the artisan philosophy of wine makers in the North Fork
  • Where the wine industry in Colorado is headed, and why all eyes are currently on the state
  • A look at pairing Wine with the local, sustainable foods found in the North Fork

Interactive Tasting

For the interactive tasting, six wines from the North Fork region will be poured. We will walk you through each wine as a professional wine evaluator would do, using 1 oz. pours to observe the particular site, smell and taste qualities of each wine.

Information on each wine’s style, price and winery location will be provided as a take-away.

This will be a fun and engaging way to learn about wine evaluation as well as discuss the styles of the wines themselves.

The Dinner

Fresh & Wyld was created in 2002 through the efforts of Aspen Chef Dava Parr. Eager to buy a healthy meal on the odd night out, Miss Parr exhausted all her efforts looking for a local dive that could offer up at least a farm fresh egg or some organically grown salad greens for Miss Parr's healthy discerning tastes. After many disappointing, over-priced meals in the local assortment of restaurants, Miss Parr took it upon herself to create an establishment that would serve local and organically sourced foods and called it Aspen Fresh and Wild.

It didn't take long for Ms. Parr to fall in love with Paonia and the North Fork Valley, which was the source of her Aspen restaurant's fine ingredients, and in 2005 she opened Fresh and Wyld in Paonia to serve fine, locally sourced cuisine. The restaurant, farm and bed & breakfast all reside on a beautiful farmhouse property on the outskirts of Paonia. It offers one of the finest seasonal experiences in the valley.

Your dinner will be made in true Fresh & Wyld fashion: embodiment of technical and artistic excellence combined with all locally sourced and organic ingredients. Dinner will be five courses and aim to showcase the emerging farm-to-table cuisine that is beginning to differentiate Colorado from other parts of the country, having been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and Sunset Magazine.

This Educational Dinner can take place on a day of your choosing throughout the summer months. Contact us to learn more.