Hestan Wines Highlight Festive Spring Dinner

We celebrate Spring with four premium wines.

“Spring Into Fun” was the theme of our recent wine dinner, which featured wines from Hestan Vineyards paired with gourmet small plates. Hestan is a picturesque Napa estate named for owners Helen and Stanley Cheng whose passion for fine wine and love for Napa Valley's charm led them to purchase the former cattle ranch in 1996. Stanley pioneered hard-anodized cookware in the 1970s, so we saluted this wine with a culinary tour de force. 

The evening began with some Premier Cru Champagne with panko-coated cauliflower florets and chimichurri two ways. Our daughter Rachel provided the amuse-bouche as well as the dessert. Delicious!

Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus spears in puff pastry appetizer were paired with the 2022 Hestan Sauvignon Blanc. This complex wine gets six months of aging in stainless steel and neutral oak. It has aromas of white blossoms and flavors of pear, honeysuckle, and lemon.

The 2020 Hestan Chardonnay comes from the San Francisco AVA. Appropriately enough our next dish was accompanied by homemade sourdough bread made with a starter from San Francisco. The garden salad was dressed with tarragon vinaigrette and the bread was served with truffle oil. This Chardonnay has ample oak and offers notes of apricot, vanilla, and toast.

The stunning 2019 Vincent Christopher Pinot Noir was our next wine offering. It is a single-vineyard wine from Sonoma Coast made with Dijon clones 113 and 828. The label was created for the Hestan line of Pinot Noir and is named for the Hestans’ two sons. Our dish was served with seared snapper and fruit salsa made with apple, strawberry,
and basil. We tip our hats to winemaker Jeff Gaffner for creating a beautiful mélange of cranberry, black cherry, cedar, and herbal tones. I would have enjoyed sipping this all night.

The 2019 Hestan Grenache, served with grilled skirt steak and Mojo sauce, surprised our guests. They didn't expect the intensity and rich flavors. The wine is made with whole-cluster fermentation and is aged 15 months in neutral oak.  It was an ideal match with the wine displaying pure raspberry flavors, plum, and herbal notes. 

Hestan Vineyards delivered a premium wine experience that delighted our dinner party guests.