TXwine Twitter Tuesday: Join Us Dec. 11th, Chat with Chef Josh Watkins on Texas Wine and Food Holiday Pairings
Happy Holidays everyone! The holidays are always a fun, busy time of year – and shopping to find the right gift can sometimes be stressful. But there’s no reason to stress over picking out some great Texas wines to pair with holiday favorites! Austin’s Denise Clarke (@DeniseClarkeTX) with Jeff Cope (@txwineLover) and me (@VintageTexas) in Houston welcome you to participate in our December TXwine Twitter Tuesday taste and tweet event.
Join us for the December 11 at 7 pm Central for TXwine Twitter Tuesday chat when Austin native and Chef Josh Watkins will join us and share some of his favorite Texas wines to pair with a holiday menu. Watkins (@chefjoshwatkins) is the executive chef at The Carillon Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. His culinary education combined with his San Francisco and Dallas restaurant experience was a huge plus when he joined the culinary team at the historic Driskill Grill under the tutelage of nationally acclaimed chef David Bull. (Watkins and Bull even teamed up and appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef America). In 2007, he was named executive chef at the Driskill Grill, which earned a consecutive five-star rating.
Watkins’ passion for farm fresh, ingredient-driven food has earned him significant accolades at The Carillon, one of the highest-rated restaurants in Austin. Watkins suggests these Texas wines to pair with some of his holiday favorites:
Duchman Family Winery Viognier
- Celery root-apple soup
- Spiced apples with brandy syrup
McPherson Cellars Sangiovese
- Free-raised veal tenderloin with sweet potato hash, and mustard greens with bacon gastrique
- Beef tenderloin with Brussels sprouts and potato puree
- Braised beef short ribs with grilled romaine and pickled radish
Fall Creek Vineyards Muscat Canelli*
- Buttermilk panna cotta
- Manchester cheese
- Almond cake
*Fall Creek Vineyards Muscat Canelli is available at The Carillon Restaurant, but is not available in stores. We suggest that you either stop by the restaurant or try Messina Hof Winery Muscat Canelli (Tribute to Innocence) which is available in stores around Texas.
Make sure to pick up these wines to ring in the holiday season and to chat with Josh about pairing wines with food! Look for these wines at Spec’s, Kroger, HEB, Central Market or Total Wine or the wineries. Try a recipe or two and some wine/food pairing. Get some advice from the chef.
Here’s how you participate: If you don’t already have one, just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. Go to the Tweetchat room set up for #TXwine (http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine). No registration is required; you can login using your Twitter account info. In the Tweetchat room, participants are invited to follow tweets, add comments or tasting notes and share thoughts as participants taste and discuss the wines. On TweetChat the hastag will be added automatically. If using TweetDeck or another Twitter application, you will need to add #TXwine in your Tweets.
This month we are also going to be posting to Facebook before, during and after the event. Click here and login and follow, post and discuss on Facebook.
