Messy and Picky

The good people at Chase Sapphire once again extended a VIP invite to a wonderful event. This time around, it was the 2010 Philadelphia Wine Festival at The Marriott Downtown. We got dressed up for the fan-cay wine sipping crowd and made our way to the halls of Bacchus. We happily made the rounds with Taylor and her man Matt from Mac and Cheese Review and Baker E herself and her friend (and co-owner of A Full Plate Cafe) Liz.

What does one need to sip wine? A glass. There was no shortage of them in the giant hall. While there were rinsing stations at each winery, I guess one might misplace a glass or three after a few (okay, 15) samples of wine and champagne.

As fancypants VIPs, we got to go behind the velvet ropes and help ourselves to some extra goodies. All one needed (other than an event sponsor hookup) was a Chase Sapphire card to buy a ticket — that's what got you into the VIP section. They had these awesome plates with a cutout for a wine glass. Genius. Ah the life of a VIP.

Each of us got a spiral bound book, a solid half-inch thick. Each page featured a different winery highlighting the selections they brought to the festival, and extra room for tasting notes. Well done. But an easier way to take notes was via these 3"x4" cards at each tasting station. It listed the winery, the wines featured and PLCB numbers. Unfortunately, there were some wines there which are not available in PLCB stores. Picky checked off each wine we had and jotted down some quick notes. All in all, we hit up 8 wineries trying out 13 different bottles (along with some bubbly cocktails in VIP!).

The wineries were divided into regions — Italy, Germany, Spain, France, CA, US non-CA — but it seemed busiest in Italy. So busy that we didn't bother trying to muscle our way into more than one booth. But Picky chose wisely and went for the San Guido Sassicaia 2006 which was a VIP-only selection. It was a nice and peppery wine. Even though it was the last wine we tasted, it still stuck out, and that's saying a lot. It sells for $160 a bottle in PLCB stores, but it's not in stock right now.

While there were some stations of food around the hall (Garces Trading Company, Capital Grille…) we saw Walnut Hill College's pasty station and settled in. Little cakes, tarts and macaroons filled the table.

A shot of four of the five flavors of macarons. The raspberry was the best one.

We spoke at length with one vendor there, Gerry Catanzano, the Northeast Division Manager for Parducci, America's first carbon neutral winery. Parducci offers a 2006 Sustainable Red and a 2008 Sustainable White ,which are both available in PLCB stores for $10. These organic wines have a lot going for them in the area of sustainability. Check out the info on their Green section. The bottles have recycled paper labels with soy and water-based inks. They reclaim the water they use in their cellars. They have solar panels used for 15% of the facility's power needs, wind power purchased through the grid, bio-diesel vehicles on the premises and they purchase offsets to mitigate shipping pollution. From the website:

Parducci is locally owned and operated in California's Mendocino County. We are committed to sustainable wine growing practices that yield top quality grapes and wines while protecting the environment and supporting our communities and local farmers. Locally owned and operated Grapes from family farms Sustainable farming practices 100% green power Earth-friendly packaging 1st US carbon neutral winery

All that environmental stuff is great, but really, how does it taste? Gerry brought out a copy of The Wine Trials, which listed 150 top wines under $15 based on blind taste tests. The 2005 Sustainable Red finished #2 in New World reds. The 2007 Sustainable White was #1 in New World whites. Not bad, eh? Messy started with the whites while Picky tried the reds. We really liked all the offerings. The sustainables were nice, the 2005 True Grit Petite Sirah had some oomph to it and the 2006 Deep Red (Merlot) was Messy's favorite and of course, it's not available in PLCB stores. (On a related note, check out this article about the apparent stigma associated with organic wines.)

An interesting part of the festival was the PLCB store right in the middle of it all. You could take your cards with PLCB codes on it and buy what you liked right then and there. Easy moneymaker for sure.

Our merry group kept our eyes on the clock for the 7:00 Möet & Chandon Nectar Imperial tasting back in VIP. It's actually our favorite bubbly. It's sweeter and juicy instead of the extra brut that many like. The twist was that they were served on ice with a lime, a champagne cocktail of sorts.

Along with the champagne were chocolates from Antoine Amrani Chocolates based out of King of Prussia.

There were about a dozen different flavors of bit sized chocolates available. Here's a list of some of their signature flavors. Amrani offers tours and tastings at their facility — we think we're gonna have to take a trek up there soonish to see everything behind the scenes.

After a couple of hours, Picky had to get going for a photo gig down in South Philly so we had to say goodbye to all the wine and our velvet rope area. We didn't leave empty handed though. Our awesome gift bag — which was a 6-bottle wine tote — was filled with goodies. A rotary foil cutter, Built neoprene wine caddy, a wine stopper and the newest Philly Mag.

So, the bake sale was a success! About $900 was raised to benefit Save our Strength, a group dedicated to fighting childhood hunger. And an added cool point was that the money raised locally would be used locally!

Messy had an event that morning, but I trekked up to Liberties Walk (late as per usual) with a big container full of my take on Metropolitan's chocolate chip, sour cherry and sea salt cookies. Mine use regular dried cherries (I can't find sour cherries anywhere, have you seen them?) and they're much much smaller and chewier than the crusty and delicious original. I was also, of course, sorely unprepared and had no baggies for the cookies, but e was at the ready and gave me a bunch of bags to stuff while she twisty tied them shut.

Above is a shot of her incredibly delicious cookies n cream whoopie pies. They're eyes rolling back into your head good. I didn't have enough room in my bag to take along some Elvis cake, but I've had it before and can attest to their awesomeness. I did, however, have just enough room to take two whoopie pies home.

About 4 long tables held up a bevvy of baked goods. Cupcakes, cookies, cakes, pretzels, granola… everything! It was ridiculously windy and stuff kept flying off the table. Nothing was damaged though – soft baked goods can take a tumble and still be delicious!

These (sort of) Lithuanian Easter breads looked interesting. They were the most foreign item to me on the table, but I didn't have room for them in my stuffed bag.

Some people cheated and had graphic designers make up gorgeous cards for their treats to make them extra special looking. So what if the trained graphic designers were the actual people behind tastebuds and tidbits, that's still cheating.

Here's a look at Marisa's pints of granola. One lady exclaimed "I want just pour it down my mouth it looks so good!" as Marisa, e and I were standing not 5' away from the jars.

After an hour or so, the sun started to peek down Liberties Walk and brighten up those cold shadows. More and more people trickled in seeking out the bake sale along with the people who happily stumbled into it unknowingly.

Another Oreo-themed baked good.

Thank you to everyone who came out to help out, bake and of course, eat!

The good people at Chase Sapphire were kind enough to extend us two VIP passes to this event. We, of course, said yes, got out of our requisite blogger PJs and headed off to the Loews Hotel for the big bash. Above is a shot of the new Italian restaurant up in Northern Liberties, Apollinare [1001 N. 2nd St]. Chef Andrea Scatacci won for Best Dessert that night and we can verify that they were delicious and fun to watch being prepared. He's mixing up fresh ice cream with liquid Nitrogen for a quick freeze sans ice cream maker.

We made it over to the Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse table (where we're getting married!) for another dessert. The event had 40 restaurants and a ton of them had desserts, making it especially friendly for vegetarian Messy — there weren't any meat pie desserts that we saw.

Eventually, we stopped by the Chase Sapphire Lounge where we walked by the velvet rope with our badges. No, we didn't do the Wayne's World bit of flashing it all over the place (but maybe we should have?). We checked in at the table to pick up an awesome schwag bag. A signed copy of Susanna Foo's Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine, Max Brenner's Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner's Private Collection (Brenner was there, but we didn't catch him in time to sign), a mini bottle of Cîroc vodka, a Chase labeled Built wine tote, a coupon book to all 40 participating restaurants, a bag of Melitta Blanc et Noir coffee and a copy of the latest Philly Mag all in a nondescript black tote bag. Yes, we got two bags. Commence hating.

And here's Chef Foo signing books in the lounge. We got one signed to Messy's dad who loves to cook Asian food. While in the lounge, Picky helped himself to a Cîroc cocktail. It was a Cîroc Cobbler. He can't remember exactly what was in it, but Messy noted that it reminded her of the sweet, strong drinks she had in college. Picky can't argue with that assessment.

There was so much to eat and see and we could barely make it to every table just to see what was being offered. In addition to the main room, there was a hallway full of tables and an additional room with more delicious offerings. We had a delicious tiramisu from what we think might have been The Dining Car.

And while we didn't get our picture taken in front of the Philly Mag backdrop to be all up in the society pages, Picky did get Messy to (grudgingly) pose for a frame. Check her out with her exclusive access badge and fan-cay bottle of Perrier!

Thank you again, good people at Chase Sapphire! And now, how about hooking us up with one of those big willie status credit cards?! Kidding, kidding. We're having a grand old time paying off our debt as it is!