Wine Pairing Chef in Sonoma, CA
The bottles are chosen first, by you or the winemaker. Every course is then cooked to meet them.
The Wine Comes First
Sylvie Mireaux cooked in wine-country restaurant kitchens for a decade before she started cooking only to the bottle. Every booking starts with the wine: a winery's new release, a collector's cellar, a crew's lunch beside the vines.
She tastes the wines before she writes a menu. Bright wines get acid and salt, big reds get slow-cooked meat, and older bottles get simpler food that lets them lead.
- Tastingbefore writing
- Coursestimed to the pour
- Wine-countryproduce
Wineries, Cellars and Crews
Wineries book most of the calendar. Private hosts fill the rest.
How a Pairing Gets Written
Bottles first
Send the list, or let the winemaker pick the lineup.
A sit-down tasting
Sylvie tastes the wines with the winemaker or the host, notebook open.
Menu in two days
One dish per wine, with a note on why each pairing works.
Timed to the pour
On the night, each plate lands as its glass is poured.
Dinner Where There's No Kitchen
Most barrel rooms have power and a long table, and nothing else. The braises, sauces and doughs are made in our own prep kitchen the day before; on the night, a finishing station of induction burners and warming ovens goes up beside the barrels.
The winery tells us its rules for cooking on site, and the room is left as it was found.
- ✓Prep done the day before
- ✓Finishing station on site
- ✓Room left as found
Wineries and Hosts on Mireaux
Our winemaker dinners used to be a caterer's menu with our wine poured beside it. Sylvie tasted through the lineup with our winemaker first, and for the first time the food was written to the wine.
We'd been saving six bottles from our wedding year. She built a dinner around them, oldest last, and kept the food quiet enough to let them talk.
Forty pickers fed at long tables between the rows every day of harvest, and lunch was never late once.
The Wine Is Yours. The Food Is Ours.
The bottles
Chosen and supplied by you or the winery. Mireaux never sells wine.
The pour
Done by the host or the winery's staff. We time each course to it.
The pairing notes
A card at each place: the dish, the wine and why they meet.
Fall Release on the Calendar?
Wineries plan fall dinners in spring. Send your date with the wines you have in mind.
Wine Pairing Dinner FAQs
Do you sell or pour the wine?
No. You or the winery supply and pour the wine. We write the menu to it and time each course to the pour.
Can you pair with older bottles from our cellar?
Yes. Send the list. Older reds usually get simpler, slower-cooked dishes so the wine can lead.
What if we haven't picked the wines yet?
Tell us the style of evening and we'll suggest what kind of wine each course wants; the choosing is yours.
How big a dinner can you take on?
Eight to forty seated, and harvest crews of up to sixty.
Can an allergy change one plate without changing the wine?
Yes. Send every allergy with the guest list, and that guest's dish is reworked to meet the same wine.
Where do you cook?
Sonoma, Glen Ellen, Kenwood, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa and the Russian River Valley.
Plan a Pairing Dinner
The date, the guests and the wines, if you know them. Sylvie writes back with questions about the lineup.