On a warm sunny day, I attended the first ever Oregon Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Food & Wine Fest at Stoller Family Estate in Dayton. It was so much fun I didn’t want to leave.
The AAPI Food & Wine Fest debuted at Stoller’s 8,000-square-foot Experience Center on May 20 and 21. The event’s mission is to promote diversity in the wine industry by showcasing Oregon’s AAPI winemaking and culinary talent. For two days, over 12 hours, five local wineries and 10 restaurants served 1,000 people.
It didn’t take long to pick out what separated this wine event from others I have attended. First, the crowd was the youngest, by far, that I’ve seen at a wine event of this size. The excitement and energy levels were palpable as people swirled their glasses and hopped from one food vendor to the next.
The crowd wasn’t just young; it was diverse.
“I was literally giddy to see so many Asian faces, and I loved connecting over shared heritage. I am what we call ‘Hapa Haole’ in the islands, which means half-white. I had so many fun conversations with other Hapa sisters about our bi-racial experiences,” Renée Saint-Amour, co-owner with Grant Coulter of Hundred Suns Wine in McMinnville, said.
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The AAPI Food & Wine Fest artfully carried out another of its missions – educating the public about non-traditional food and wine pairings. Each chef I visited quickly pointed out which wine I should try their dish with.
My favorite pairing of the day was Sunrice’s fried chicken bites with adobo honey glaze and a pickled jalapeño with the 2021 Hundred Suns Old Eight Cut Chardonnay. To be fair, the dish was also pretty righteous with Shiba Wichern’s 2021 Willamette Blanc.
It wasn’t just the attendees grooving on the food and…
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