Terpenes & Terroir: A Magical Sequel
The dreamy setting at Gary Farrell Winery for the TSO Sonoma Terpenes & Terroir dinner. Photos: Marcia Gagliardi. © mymilligram.
After a day of learning, listening, tasting, and talking about wine and weed at the third annual Wine & Weed Symposium (I was thrilled to moderate the Women, Wine, and Weed panel!), it was time to head up through the winding roads of the Russian River Valley to Gary Farrell Winery, for the second Terpenes & Terroir dinner from TSO Sonoma, with special guests The Herb Somm and the Crop-to-Kitchen Community.
I almost couldn’t believe we were attending an elevated dinner at such an esteemed winery, with their winemaker Theresa Heredia presenting wines alongside cannabis pairings, all held at the same level of regard—may the normalization of cannabis continue blazing along this path! I was also happy to see a Champagne house (Canard-Duchêne) so proudly affiliate themselves with a cannabis dinner—we all agreed, cannabis and Champagne really are the best together (especially when proclaimed with a French accent).
During the reception, guests visited the tables of the evening’s brand partners, including Atlas Edibles, Fiddler’s Greens, Flow Kana, Garden Society, Potli, Rosette, and Sonoma Pacific. TSO Sonoma was celebrating the launch of their TSOcial Club (their new membership club), highlighting their new full line of vapes (Grounded, Mindful, and Restful—all three pens feature unique ratios of cannabinoids), and announced their partnership with Fiddler’s Greens on the manufacturing of this brand-new line! Fabulous. And the shop just went live! TSO will also be delivering a curated selection of their favorite products to members of the TSOcial Club.
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We started the evening with canapés and glasses of Champagne (poured en magnum) from Canard-Duchêne (brioche-y excellence), and kicked off the terpene portion of the experience with limonene and beta-caryophyllene, repped with bites of hearts of palm ceviche and black pepper cream on purple potato chips. Gary Farrell 2018 sauvignon blanc and Sticky Farms Lemon Fuel were also featured, which would waft everywhere with its aromatic charms as soon as you opened the jar.
It was time to sit down to the soulful summer feast from Altered Plates, comprised of fab brother-sister duo chef Holden Jagger and Rachel Burkons, up from LA. The setting on the terrace was extraordinary—what a dreamy view, and TSO hosts Allison Kosta and Devika Maskey always present such a gorgeous table.
The family-style meal was a full-on celebration of summer, with platters of perfectly ripened peaches and heirloom tomatoes, paired with lemon ricotta and crisp speck, highlighting linaool as the featured terpene. We sniffed jars of Durban flower from Fiddler’s Greens in Sonoma, paired with Gary Farrell’s 2015 Russian River chardonnay—thanks to The Herb Somm for walking us through all the nuances and pairings. If you think like me, this would be a perfect time to reach into your gift bag and open and drizzle some Pot d’Huile olive oil over the tomatoes (since we were at a winery, this was a non-infused dinner, with no smoking on-site). I was also passing around my personal tin of Mondo to my neighbors (I don’t leave home without it!).
I don’t know how chef Holden managed to make such juicy lemon and honey Cornish game hens (limonene!) for so many guests (bravo!), and he even made big, fat, ribbons of pappardelle, served cacio e pepe–style, with corn cream and sweet peppers (yo, beta-caryophyllene!). We were all eating lustily and giggling with contentment. This course was paired with Gary Farrell’s 2015 Hallberg Vineyard pinot noir; sadly, I can’t drink red wine these days (it can give me a inglorious two-day migraine), but I was happy to enjoy smelling Water Dog Herb Farm’s Lotus alongside the earlier wine pairings (and I brought home a couple buds to smoke later, you know, for research).
Yours truly playin’ Groucho Marx (or maybe Teddy Roosevelt?) with Casa Humboldt’s bodacious Blueberry Muffin. Photo: Cynthia Glassell Photography.
As things wound down over cornbread pudding with thyme-salted caramel and warm blueberries (pinene!), I was so happy to get to stick my face into a bag of freshly harvested Blueberry Muffin flower from Casa Humboldt—they sent me home with a couple fat buds, which proceeded to completely perfume my car and then my apartment like they were a bakery. Git yer muffins here! I always adore the community that comes together at TSO Sonoma’s gatherings, and am so grateful for the generosity of all the partners (and friends!). High class, indeed.