Rebecca and Aimee The Wine Girls 

Allan Hancock College Food & Wine Pairing

As part of our continuing education, my sister Aimee and I attended a Dessert & Wine Pairing class with Ardison Phillips of McKeon Phillips winery. This class is the last class in the Food and Wine Pairing certificate series. Although, we hadn't attended the classes before, Ardison let us stay in the class. The students in the class are serious about learning their wines and most are already accomplished cooks. There was a couple from the Los Angles area that come up for all the food and wine pairing classes. She is an interior designer and he is a fund raiser coordinator. There was a general contractor in the class who is more than dabbling in wine making. He has 2 60 gal. barrels filled with wine at the Central Coast Wine Warehouse. He was at home in the VTC kitchen helping to prepare the lunch and one of the desserts. There was also a AHC administrator. She left her power suit at home for the weekend but didn't leave her curious, educational nature. She is still a student after all these years. Then there was a local business owner who Ardison affectionately refered to as the "Cheese Cake Princess". She has been in all of the food and wine pairing classes, as had all the other students. There was also a new central coast transplant from the Bay area who is a caterer by trade. Like I said my sister and I kind of crashed the class. Nevertheless, we were so thrilled when they all said we could stay. We had no idea what a treat we were in for. (No pun intended even though we consumed 8 sweet central coast wines and 7 gourmet desserts). We tried the '97 Ephiphany Sparkling Wine with a fresh fruit tart, '01 Firestone Late Harvest Riesling with Cheese stuffed pear in pastry (Betty Miller and I made these. They were beautiful), '97 Zaca Mesa Late Harvest Viognier with an out of this world Creme Brule, '02 Kalyra California Orange Muscat paired well with the Pear Tartartan, '98 Kalyra California Vintage Port with a unique Chocolate Hazelnut Tort, Bonney Doon Framboise Port with the Double Blue Cheese Cake and last but certainly not least '03 McKeon Phillips Early release Port with the to die for Portuguese Chocolate Pudding. All this in 8 hours! Now I cannot wait for the next class which is the beginning class, Food and Wine Pairing in January. Anyone who loves wine and food just has to take these classes. Ardison is a jewel of a teacher who is so passionate about both food and wine that you hardly know where the 16 hours goes when Sunday afternoon roles around.