Ray Isle's Burgers and Wine Pairing

Just got back from a great week in Aspen at the Food & Wine Classic. Productive week meeting with members of the wine trade (wholesalers and restauranteurs) but especially fun as a consumer. Amazing opportunities to drink and eat and educate myself. Especially fun was Ray Isle (of F&W mag) hosting a burgers and red wine pairing. Three burgers…each paired with one Napa wine and one Sonoma wine. Sonoma wines won all three straw polls!

Friday was (a small amount of) work, Saturday was lots of leisure. A morning hike and an afternoon Gondola ride up to the top of the mountain (11,800 ft) were sandwiched around a day full of wine tasting. If you have the chance, I highly recommend checking out Aspen F&W – It is like a very upscale, grown-up, fraternity party.

Sunday, I jumped on a couple of airplanes to get home for a leisurely Fathers’ Day. A trip to Train Town with Dad and my two boys and off to Mom and Dad’s for Dinner. For work, we put much effort into a Fathers’ Day marketing campaign, so it was nice to have the opportunity to relax and enjoy the day.

View from the gondola looking back at the town of Aspen. Extremely scary trip.

A bear track the size of my foot seen on our morning hike. Also extremely scary.