Amid a sea of suede, plaid, and cashmere, your correspondent joined Times associate editor Geoff Currier and photo editor Gabrielle Mannino at the 2018 Martha’s Vineyard Food and Wine Grand Tasting at the Winnetu this past Saturday, Oct. 20.
Picture yourself on an outbound trolley, B Line, at say 5 pm on a weekday. Now try to shimmy through the tangle of bodies with a wine glass in one hand, and an hors d’oeuvre in the other. Now you’ve got a sense for what it was like to navigate the two great tents on the Winnetu grounds.
This event used to be held in downtown Edgartown, with outside-the-tent refuges like Kelley House and the Wharf. The Katama venue offered fewer escape routes. In fact, there was nothing outside the tasting tents but a cold wind on the sandplains.
If you were hoping to bump into Vineyarders, you were at the wrong event. Aside from vendors and the imperishable Lt. Chris Dolby, the Edgartown Police officer on duty, your correspondent spied maybe five Islanders over the course of two hours. This was a foreign contingent of spiffy-looking folks from the autumn sidewalks of Newbury and Marlborough.
We began to wriggle around the periphery, and stopped at the Counter Kitchen and Bar table, a Witch City eatery. We enjoyed beef tartare sliders, which wound up being the most delicious sample from Saturday’s fest. Beside Counter Kitchen, Edgartown resident Kevin Foran, owner of Hogshead Wine Co., worked a busy table. Tasters, including myself, lingered while sampling a variety of his wines. After Foran’s wines began the exploration.
Your correspondent hit the Back Door Donuts table — OK, your correspondent hit it twice — and it did not disappoint. After having tasty salami at Italian food expert and olive oil sommelier Marco Mocellin’s table, we hit the Hob Knob table, the Garde East table, the Table table (a Cambridge eatery), and the Knights Bridge Wine table.
About 12 wine samples later, I heard a gentle strumming filter through the crowd — at least I thought I heard it. Was it a harp? Through the horn-rimmed glasses and Hermès scarves, I saw it like a lighthouse of barley and nitrogen bubbles — a Guinness bar. You don’t know how refreshing a Guiness is when your tongue is glazed in every hue of wine imaginable. Guinness rep and Lowell native Michael Reardon talked stout as I drank stout — magic.
Many samples later, I stopped over at the Cottage City Oyster table, and found co-owner Dan Martino sold out of hundreds of oysters. After that, I was delighted to revisit Jared and Tracey Brandt, owners of Donkey and Goat wines, a California-based operation. I also found Jason Trulby’s Plymouth Wine Co. wines. They ranged from inexpensive to pricey, and all were pleasurable.
At the Palm Bay table, where many spirits were offered, I went for the Chamucos Reposado tequila. Smokey, lovely, and unharsh. Vineyard oil painter Colin Ruel joined The Times at the Palm Bay table, having been shanghaied from his easel a short time earlier by homegrown wine Jedi Sam Decker.
It was difficult to hear Justin Ito-Adler over the din of the tent. He’s the Massachusetts spirits manager for Palm Bay International, and I wanted to know more about their tequila. I asked him in an email.
“It is an awardwinning (double gold at San Francisco world spirits) organically produced tequila with no additives, and only brand-new American oak aging,” he wrote. “It is a real deal tequila that is beloved by high-end bars across the country. I had to hide it under the table after a couple of hours because my table got rocked at the end of last year’s festival!”
I asked him how he liked the event, and if he got to eat anywhere on-Island. Ito-Adler wrote, “Loved the event. Have attended a couple of them, and this year was fantastic. Had an amazing dinner at State Road with Dan Michaud from Ruby [Wines] afterwards. Loved seeing Colin Lynch from Bar Mezzana there. His restaurant is probably my favorite in Boston right now.”
Speaking of Bar Mezzana, I was quite gratified to receive a compliment on my aloha shirt from restaurateur Heather Lynch, general manager of the popular Harrison Avenue eatery. Automatic high marks for anybody who appreciates a well-patterned aloha shirt. And since their food was divine, double the high marks. Keying in on my aloha shirt, Lynch pitched her new venture, Shore Leave, a tiki bar. I loved the idea, but something started running in the back of my mind.
Boston’s last notable bar of that type went down in tragedy. It was a deadly fire 76 years ago. My 94-year-old aunt actually heard the screams from her mother’s apartment on Isabella Street back in 1942. Decades later, that ghost seems duly put to rest, and it’s about time the city had another tropical venue to break up winter’s gloom. I will not name the establishment — the City of Boston reportedly banned any other establishment from ever using the name again. Regardless, I know I will queue up to be one of the first to visit Shore Leave, because like I said, I think it’s about time.
One vendor who was at the fest for the first time was gracious enough to share her impressions with The Times.
“This was our first time at the festival, and we had an amazing time,” Kristin Canty, an owner of Woods Hill Table and Adelita restaurants in Concord, emailed, “We were not able to sample from other tables at the event, as we were completely bombarded while we were at the Grand Tasting, and then we had to rush off to prepare for a private dinner we were catering. However, we are friends with the people from Reelhouse and Bar Mezzana … two of our faves and we were able to say hello. We were able to spend a lot of time with Joseph Carr, as well as the owners of Donkey and Goat, as their wines were paired with our food during our private dinners. We were lucky to meet year-rounders on the Island, such as Julia Celeste, who owns and runs Rosewater Market, where we ate breakfast and lunch. She was amazing to work with during one of the dinners. We thought that the event was very well organized, and we were grateful for Dawn Curtis Hanley and Anchor 18 events for their assistance with everything from getting there and back, to anything that we needed while we were on the island.”
When I spoke with Foran the next day, he told me not only were the overwhelming majority of guests from off-Island, but many people he encountered were from out of state. Kudos to the Edgartown Board of Trade for bringing a cavalcade of folks to the Island, postseason — some 600 or so. All the off-Island fall poshness (and claustrophobia) aside, the event mustered real cash for two Island nonprofit causes — Island Grown Schools and the M.V. Agricultural Society’s farmers program. Cheers to that.
