In the Fall of 2012 we started hosting casual tastings on Sunday afternoons. In coming up with a name for them, our one and only employee at the the time Lindsey Schmieman’s husband gave us the idea to call them ‘Sunday Sessions’. Anton Schmieman is from Australia. Basically, Sundays in Australia are the day that many friends gather to drink, listen to music and hangout! Organically, we stopped hosting Sunday Sessions due to colder weather and the bustle of the Holiday season coming upon us.

Five years later, we wanted to start occasional tastings again on Sundays. Why not do a Brunch once a month? Our very first brunch was scheduled for Sunday, October 8, 2017. ‘Fiesta before you Siesta’. We were able to get Bobby Flournoy of Classical Wines to come to Southern Napa for the weekend. We were going to feature six of his Spanish Wines and prepare five classic Spanish dishes to pair with them.

As we all know, hurricanes can still occur in October, and that’s exactly what happened. October 7, 2017, Hurricane Nate made landfall in Mississippi. Fortunately, there was no major damage locally but, nonetheless we didn’t have a Fiesta.

We were able to reschedule the tasting and did so in Spring of 2018. We joked about making Bobby’s nickname Nate for this tasting. Many of the people who made reservations for the original tasting were able to attend the make up date. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon after all. We shared stories of the Fiestas, aka Hurricane Parties we had that weekend in October while we sipped Albarino and ate Smoked Salmon Pizza.

Smoked Salmon Pizza

1 pre-baked 12-inch pizza crust 8 ounces soft cream cheese
2 tablespoons granulated garlic 6 ounces smoked sliced salmon 1/3 cup chopped fresh chives

3 tablespoons chopped capers

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• Place pizza shell on a baking sheet. Spread cream cheese over entire

  surface of pizza shell. Sprinkle with garlic powder and lay salmon slices on top. Bake until cream cheese melts and salmon is golden. Top with chives and capers.