Taking its reputation global is inspiring organizers for Oregon’s signature wine event to think local. Their efforts will give the Oregon Wine Experience a corresponding culinary experience.

“We have a beautiful growing season here,” says event officer Ashley Myers.

Sun and soil so favorable to the region’s diverse wine grapes produce innumerable foods of equal quality, a match that event organizers intend to showcase. Those distinctive ingredients in the hands of celebrated chefs, says Myers, will play prominently at the 2018 event, August 23-26, in Jacksonville.

“I really want … attractive, individual bites,” says Myers, who joined Asante Foundation to increase the Oregon Wine Experience’s culinary expertise and heighten its caliber of cuisine.

With 15 years in the restaurant industry, from San Francisco to the Caribbean, Myers says she specializes in inspiring chefs. Envisioning dishes as “pieces of art on the table,” she’s forging partnerships with Southern Oregon farmers and purveyors to furnish foodstuffs for four days of indulgence and also link their names with the event’s charitable cause, Asante Children’s Miracle Network.

More than $1 million raised at last year’s Oregon Wine Experience—the entirety of event profits—remained in the region to support Asante Children’s Miracle Network and pediatric programs at Rogue Regional Medical Center, one of 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals nationwide.

The flagship fundraising event for Asante Foundation, the Oregon Wine Experience is in its fifth year managed as a healthcare benefit. For more than a decade, it operated as the World of Wine Festival.

“It has these beautiful, local roots,” says Sarahanne Driggs, event officer for Asante Foundation. “It’s gaining traction throughout the state. We’re really wanting to bring in that outside audience.”

More than 4,000 people are expected at this year’s Oregon Wine Experience on the Bigham Knoll Campus in Jacksonville, says Driggs, adding that the event has seen 40 percent growth. Slightly more than half of the 103 entrants in last year’s wine competition hailed from Southern Oregon, she says, lauding the Oregon Wine Experience’s broader reach.

“Two years ago, the competition went statewide,” she says. “We have this world-class wine … and now we’re wanting to match that with this amazing culinary component.”

“Ultimate vintner dinners” wowed sponsors and major donors in 2017, when 15 local wineries offered their estates as the settings for unique gastronomic fêtes. The format remains a significant aspect of this year’s Oregon Wine Experience, which also aims to bring the same spirit of creativity and hospitality to the general public, says Myers.

“It can have transformational qualities,” she says of well-executed pairings of food and wine.

Where crostini, meatballs and poached shrimp populated last year’s grand tasting, this year’s guests can anticipate more thoughtful accompaniments to more than 100 wines. Think shrimp ceviche in cucumber cups, fromage blanc in phyllo shells topped with pineapple relish or Gorgonzola cheese and candied hazelnuts cradled in a dried apricot. All three appetizers were served in past years’ sensory classes, branded collectively as Oregon Wine University.

Menus that read like course catalogs, however, are unlikely at this year’s Oregon Wine Experience, says Myers. Preferring to promote the event as one of “surprise and delight,” she says she may advertise ingredients and suppliers in advance, along with partner chefs, but not specific dishes. Yet she will ensure that chafing trays of “mystery meats” are off the table.

“You go to one of these wine events, and you get meat and cheese and bread … and we can do better,” she says, tempering her outlook just a bit. “I’m not expecting somebody to throw out a bunch of octopus tentacles!”

Likely the most captivating spectacle, salmon staked over an open fire is a tradition shared by the Coquille Indian Tribe that will continue at the Oregon Wine Experience. The Miracle Auction’s main dish, the alder- and cedar-roasted salmon heads up an array of salads, vegetable side dishes and dessert, along with beef and pork prepared by Smithfields chef-owner Neil Clooney, an Iron Chef winner at Portland’s Bite of Oregon.

Courting chefs with name recognition is one of the Oregon Wine Experience’s strategies in coming years, says Myers, adding that she expects the event to “blow up” with culinary talent from around the state, including the Portland metro area. Establishing the Oregon Wine Experience’s foodie following, organizers say, will make it a gastronomic destination equal to those in San Francisco or California’s Napa Valley.

“We want people from around the world to come,” says Driggs.

For more information and ticket sales, see www.theoregonwineexperience.com.

©Southern Oregon Wine Scene

Summer 2018 issue