4 Wine Events You Should Know About: City of Angels Wine Fest; Melville wine dinner at Providence; Grgich at the Belvedere; wine and cheese class at Little Door
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Downtown wine festival: The Rotary Club of Los Angeles Foundation hosts its second annual City of Angels Wine Fest on Memorial Day at the Music Center Plaza downtown. Food and drink will be provided by California wineries and restaurants Nick + Stef’s Steakhouse, Café Pinot, Kendall’s Brasserie, Zucca Ristorante and Tina Tacos. There will be a silent auction and live performances by Ours and the Family Crest. Part of the silent auction will be sponsored by Saatchi Online, featuring donating artists. Money goes toward fighting homelessness on behalf of L.A.’s Volunteers of America, whose transitional facility in downtown Los Angeles provides shelter and job opportunities for more than 1,800 homeless annually. May 30, 1 to 6 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $150, available online at www.cityofangelswinefest.com.
Wine and cheese: Staci Miller, wine director at the Little Door, leads classes on boutique wines and artisan cheeses from producers around the world. Wines are paired with fresh and bloomy, washed rind and aged cheeses as Miller discusses cheese and wine pairing fundamentals. Classes take place at the Little Door and include six wine and cheese pairings, light appetizers and take-home handouts. The May 25 class spotlights cheese and wine from California, Oregon and Washington. 7 to 9 p.m. $68 per person (or $108 for two people in the same class). Sign up online at lawinetasting.com. 8164 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, www.thelittledoor.com.
Melville at Providence: Providence will collaborate with Melville winemaker Greg Brewer for a special dinner on May 25 featuring some of the winery’s Library wines. The menu: soy milk panna cotta yuzu, uni and salted cherry blossom with 2008 Viognier ‘Verna’s’; charcoal-grilled spot prawn, spot prawn consommé and ginger with Chardonnay ‘Clone 76 Inox’; Japanese unagi brown butter whipped potatoes, nori, lemon with 2002 Chardonnay ‘Estate’; roasted rack of Duroc pork, morels and cherry confiture with 2002 Pinot Noir ‘Carrie’s Estate’; market cheese and petit fours. $135 per person. Call for reservations. 5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 460-4170, www.providencela.com.
Grgich at the Belvedere: On May 19 and 20, the Belvedere at the Peninsula Beverly Hills will host a wine dinner with Napa Valley’s Grgich Hills Estate. Executive chef James Overbaugh and sous chef Marc Bouchard are serving a five-course menu paired with Grgich Hills wines, such as roasted duck breast with rhubarb compote, cassis reduction and lentil fritter with 2006 Grgich Hills Merlot, and seared scallop carpaccio with green papaya salad with 2009 Grgich Hills Fumé Blanc. See the full menu here. Ivo Jeramaz, the winemaker of Grgich Hills, will be there to discuss the wines. $110 per person. Call (310) 975-2736 or e-mail diningpbh@peninsula.com for reservations. 9882 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 925-2736, www.peninsula.com.
-- Betty Hallock
