At J Vineyards, food and wine go hand-in-hand.

The winery’s owner, Judy Jordan, has been a Sonoma pioneer in her efforts to create an elegant food- and-wine experience for visitors. Touting both sparkling and traditional Burgundian still wines, Jordan offers guests a luxurious take on Sonoma County hospitality.

In 1996, she purchased the former Piper Sonoma winery in Healdsburg, in the heart of California’s Russian River Valley. A few years later, in 1999, she opened J Vineyards’ tasting room. Going beyond basic wine tastings, staff members offered small food items to complement each wine, showing how what’s in the glass marries with what’s on the plate.

Eight years ago, Jordan hired Mark Caldwell as executive chef. His job: to create a variety of “ahhh-inducing” dishes to partner with her wines.

Tasting Opportunities at J Vineyards

The Signature Bar in the tasting room has art as cool as its bubbly. It’s backed by an impressive 18-by-24-foot, floor-to-ceiling, metal-and-glass installation by Napa Valley artist Gordon Huether. It’s washed with acid and mineral dusts to give it the warm hues of copper. Embedded in it are sparkling nuggets of glass lit by fibre optics, evoking the bubbles in a flute of sparkling wine.

On weekends, an enhanced tasting is offered in the Bubble Room, overlooking the gardens and lily pond. As part of this experience, Caldwell prepares several courses to go with a half-dozen wines, all served in the luxuriously appointed salon. Jordan believes Caldwell’s cooking is a perfect match to J’s wines; both wines and dishes have balance, elegance and subtlety.

“There’s a lot of experimentation and playing with flavours at J,” says Caldwell. “I reduce down sparkling wines to make different vinaigrettes, or to make a sauce for oysters on the half shell; or I’ll marinate strawberries in a reduction of our rosé and mint. I’ll also pour sparkling wine on dessert, so it foams up at the last second.”

Pairing Wine with Food

Recipe: Chilled Carrot-Curry Soup

His experimentation has led to one answer to the ongoing challenge of pairing asparagus with wine. “What I’ve learned,” says Caldwell, “is that steamed asparagus brings out a metallic flavour with wine. If you sauté or roast asparagus, it caramelizes, and shows nicely with the earthiness of a pinot noir.”

His impeccably wine-friendly recipes vary from succulent lobster-shellfish cakes with saffron aïoli (paired with J Cuvée 20 and the 2008 California Pinot Gris), to chilled carrot-curry soup (see recipe; best with the 2008 Chardonnay and J Vintage Brut). He uses two ’08 pinots — the Russian River Valley, and the Nicole’s Vineyard — in a reduction to accompany pan-roasted beef sirloin. Even sweets are deserving of pairings, with a dessert of citrus olive-oil cake with rose petal parfait matched to J Brut Rosé.

With an owner intent on upholding gracious wine country hospitality and a chef crafting unforgettable wine and food pairings, J’s tasting room stands among the best in the West.

Photo: ayako