You’ve been good all month. Hit the gym religiously. Read The Dry Challenge cover to cover. But now you’re ready to get back in the game. Live a little. As in a glass or two of good wine, paired with good food. Vérité, right out of Sonoma, has a wine flight for that, with recipes to go along with it.
Wines as good as Vérité’s deserve only the best food. And when the team behind the iconic winery came to Manhattan, they knew exactly where to find it. Enter Resident. It’s a company that transforms luxury spaces into intimate dining experiences, with the help of some Michelin-trained chefs. The winery teamed up with Resident and the Jacques Pépin Foundation to produce a private dinner celebrating the Sonoma wines and Vérité’s newly opened tasting salon. And yes, it was as dreamy as it sounds. Here’s everything you need to know about the experience, and how to snag one of your own at Vérité’s Sonoma winery.
Vérité x Resident
It’s a crisp October night at One Manhattan Square, nestled at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. The space is sleek, open, and inviting. Twinkling views of the Lower Manhattan waterline set the scene. Chef Nicholas Leiss starts the show, pairing the first of seven Vérité wines with a dish that deserves introduction. Buttery fluke rests under candied horseradish, sour sorrel leaves, and crisp apple slices — an opening dish that makes you wonder, how do you top this? But Leiss does, again and again. The five-course meal is inventive and boundary-pushing, even causing some raised eyebrows. There’s a terroir black dirt onion, the only legal foie gras in the US, and a wood pigeon artfully constructed to resemble the once-whole bird.
It becomes increasingly easy to see why Vérité chose this stage to showcase its wines. The culinary platform is first and foremost aiming to connect food lovers with the faces and craft behind the dishes. Resident’s Director of Events Andre Gennitti puts it simply: the Michelin-trained chefs at Noma don’t greet you at the door, and rarely do they personally explain each course for you. His metaphor for the experience? Dining in a restaurant is like seeing a painting at the Met. A Resident dinner, though, is like a personalized tour of the gallery.
A New Vérité Experience
It’s not far off from Vérité’s ethos. The Sonoma County winery is interested in engaging its guests with the nature of not just their wines, but the vineyards they come from. When you attend a tasting at Vérité, you aren’t just experiencing the wine. You’re experiencing a process, a holistic approach to winemaking that spans two generations. Similar to Resident, Vérité’s tastings are paired with intimate experiences that connect guests to one of the most diverse grape-growing regions in the world.
Recently, the winery debuted its new tasting salon. Located twenty minutes outside of downtown Healdsburg, the space echoes the careful artistry of the estate’s winemaking. An indoor-outdoor layout invites guests to take in panoramic views of the valley floor and its vineyard landscapes. Its design blends French châteaus and cozy Californian influences to create a space reminiscent of the winery’s own history. Founded in 1998 by iconic winemakers Pierre Seillan and Jess Jackson (a Frenchman and a Californian), the estate has always focused on blending the traditions of Bordeaux with the inventive nature of Sonoma County.
The result of this infusion? A roster of wines that have received 17 perfect 100-point scores from renowned wine critics like the crew at Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. And now, with Vérité’s new tasting salon, guests can take a front-row seat to the process of creating these award-winning wines, all from the comfort of a fairytale French getaway.
Tastings
Intimate estate tastings start at $175 a person, featuring three current vintage wines over a 90-minute tasting. Library comparison tastings are also available for those looking to explore the longevity of Vérité wines, starting at $350 a person. Over two hours, guests will taste three current vintages, paired alongside three library vintages from Bordeaux-inspired labels. The winery is also working on expanding the tasting salon to include views of the estate’s two-story barrel chai (a French term for a barrel storage room). Guests can enjoy access to private tasting rooms that overlook the dramatic barrel, as well tours of the chai itself.
The opening of this space adds Vérité to the long list of opulent hospitality businesses making a splash in Sonoma County. In celebration of this, downtown Healdsburg’s 3-Michelin-star restaurant Single Thread has partnered with Vérité to develop a series of recipes to pair with the wines. Here’s how to recreate your own tasting at home.
Single Thread’s Sonoma Grains with Mushroom and Braised Wagyu Short Rib
Recipe by Chef Kyle Connaughton
Serves 4
Ingredients
18 oz piece of Wagyu short rib, trimmed of any silver skin/excess fat
Salt
Oil for searing
35 oz of beef stock
2 lbs of matsutake mushrooms- cleaned and peeled
1/3 cup and 7 tbsp of sake
1/3 cup and 7 tbsp of mirin
10 oz of dashi
1.5 oz of white tamari, plus more for seasoning
3.5 tbsp of diced pickled turnips
1 cup of barley, washed
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of Saikyo Miso
½ tsp of baking soda
7 tbsp of Sake kasu
7 tbsp of softened butter
⅓ cup of grape seed oil
¼ cup of sesame seed oil
⅓ cup of diced burdock root
⅓ cup pureed black garlic
Directions
For the Braised Wagyu Short Rib
Begin by seasoning the short rib with salt and letting it sit for 20 minutes. In a sauté pan, heat a thin layer of oil until it just begins to smoke. Sear the short rib on all sides until deeply browned, about 3 minutes per side. Once seared, remove from the pan and let chill at room temperature. Next, set a water bath to 133 ºF. Seal the short rib in a vac-pac bag under full pressure and cook in the water bath for 72 hours before removing. Chill the short rib in the refrigerator.
For the Ice Filtered Beef Broth
Pour the beef stock into a large vac-pac bag and seal under full pressure. When laying flat, the broth should be 2cm thick. Freeze the broth, making sure the bag is flat and laid evenly. Next, place a shallow, perforated pan inside a deeper pan and layer the perforated pan with a sheet of cheesecloth. Remove the frozen stock from the bag and place the block flat onto the cheesecloth. Cover the top with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. After three days, collect the clear liquid that has dripped through the cheesecloth. Reserve this as your ice-filtered beef broth.
For Steamed Matsutake, Matsutake Tea, and Matsutake Puree
Next, add the matsutake mushrooms to a metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water and allow to steam for 1 hour. After an hour, collect the purged liquid (this will be your matsutake tea) and reserve the steamed mushrooms. Set both aside. Now, combine 7 tbsp of sake and 7 tbsp of mirin in a pot and bring to a simmer. Let simmer until the mixture has reduced by half, then add the dashi and 10 oz of your steamed mushrooms. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes before adding the white tamari. Next, transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Reserve the mixture in a squeeze bottle for serving, and reserve the remaining steamed mushrooms for the dish.
For the Wagyu and Steamed Matsutake Mushroom
Next, dice your chilled short rib. Combine the diced short rib, pickled turnip, and most of your reserved steamed mushrooms in a bowl. Save only a few pieces of mushrooms for your final garnish, and set those aside. Add some of the mushroom puree that you saved in the squeeze bottle. The mixture should be sturdy enough to hold in a quenelle (a three-sided scoop). Set the mixture aside.
For the Grains
Now, place the grains and water in a large pot over medium heat. Cook for 20 minutes, then turn the heat off and let sit. Wait an additional 20 minutes before removing the grains. Set aside to cool.
For the Caramelized Grains
In a bowl, combine half of your cooked and cooled barley with baking soda and ¼ cup of Saikyo Miso. Once combined, transfer to a glass canning jar and place the lid on top. Close the lid and place in a pressure cooker on a rack. Next, add less than an inch of water to the pressure cooker before placing the lid on top and cooking under full pressure for 20 minutes. Once cooked, allow the caramelized grains to cool.
For the Sake Kasu butter
Using a spatula, combine the Sake Kasu and softened butter in a bowl. Once combined, transfer to a container to let cool.
For the Matsutake Tea and Ice Filtered Beef Broth
Combine 10.5 oz of the matsutake tea you made previously with 10.5 oz of the ice filtered beef broth. Gently warm the mixture, and season with white tamari to taste.
For the Final Grains
In a saucepot, combine the grape seed and sesame oils over medium heat. Add the burdock root and sauté until softened and lightly browned. Next, add 1 ½ tbsp mirin and ½ tbsp sake. Let reduce before adding your remaining cooked grains and about 1 to 1 ¼ cups of broth. Simmer, then add ⅓ cup of Saikyo Miso, the black garlic purée, and ½ cup of the reserved caramelized grains. There should be enough stock for the mixture to simmer together into a risotto-like consistency. Remove from the heat and beat in the sake kasu butter. Season with white tamari if needed.
For the Final Dish
Finally, spoon the grain mixture into four bowls. Make four quenelles of the wagyu mixture and place each quenelle into the bowls of grains. Top with a few of the sliced steam matsutake mushrooms on each dish. To garnish, place a few dots of the matsutake puree on top and drizzle with the reserved grilled beef fat. Serve with a side of the ice filtered beef broth.
