Wally's Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration

Imagine if the guys from "Sideways" ate some magic toadstools and got lost in a giant wineland, where every which way they turned, jovial fellows offered them glasses of vintage pinot noir. And the only escape was to accept morsel after morsel of tempting snacks...that's what Sunday's Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration at Wally's Wines was like.

Pinot noir was definitely the star, but there were some other excellent selections as well, like Qupe's 2004 Rousanne and Kunin's 2003 Syrah. And the Pinots from the likes of Sea Smoke, Melville and Au Bon Climat were exceedingly nice, too. We tasted brisket from Santa Barbara's Bouchon and tri-tip from the Hitching Post, but for once it was the desserts that were calling my name.
I went back for seconds on Grace's white chocolate ice cream with cashews (left photo) and Szechuan peppercorns. Campanile had refreshing, intense raspberry and passion fruit popsicles and Literati had ethereal little squares of puff pastry topped with panna cotta and huckleberries (right photo).

And it was for a good cause -- a benefit for the Michael Bonaccorsi Scholarship Fund at UC Davis. Some people went home with some darling puppies from the auction...hope they weren't too tipsy when they put in those bids!