On Sunday, October 15, Black Women Who Wine held its first ever Fall Harvest Wine Dinner. I’d planned for this night all year long and it was by far the biggest Black Women Who Wine event ever held. Twenty women joining together for an elevated wine experience in the heart of Central Virginia wine country right off of Route 151.
When it was time to pick the vendors for this event, I knew I wanted to support other Black businesses and for the most part I was able to. So what did we drink with our four courses? The wine dinner featured Fifty Leven, a black, woman-owned wine brand based in Leesburg. The night was made even more special because Fifty Leven owner, Kindra attended to personally share her wines with us.
The second course, Sancocho, a meat and vegetable stew, was paired with Fifty Leven Petit Verdot; the third course, filet with bourbon sauce was paired with Fifty Leven Heritage; and dessert, caramel apple cake was paired with Fifty Leven Stride Pear.
Many attendees had never tried Fifty Leven wines, but all agreed they were excellent. The Heritage is a red blend of 44% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 13% Cabernet Franc. The full-bodied blend paird well with the filet and was pretty fruit forward for a blend of this magnitude. The Stride Pear was a perfect pairing with dessert. A blend of Asian and American pears, this wine contains 1.7% residual sugar.
Aside from the Fifty Leven wines, the dinner also included two other wines. The heirloom tomato salad was paried with Veritas Sauvignon Blanc and a red meat alternative for the first cours, Tuscan chicken, was paired with Giuseppe Bocchino Arduine Barbera d’ Asti.