By Bob Ruegsegger
Correspondent
Isle of Wight County
Escaping the post-Thanksgiving shopping crowds never tasted so good. This year's Historic Holiday Wine & Food Tasting at Boykin's Tavern in Isle of Wight on Saturday and Sunday offers an early venue to begin celebrating the holiday season.
"We are having a wine and food pairing. We'll be tasting three or four wines," said Pinky Hipp, chairperson of the Boykin's Tavern Advisory Committee, which is sponsoring the event.
"This is our first wine and food tasting, but we have done progressive type dinners before, so we are trying something a little different this year," said Edwin Little, a member of the advisory committee, as well as the event's caterer. "We think the world of the tavern, and we want to keep it preserved and show it off. I'm doing flower arrangements that will be authentic to the period and the house. It's always very, very pretty when we finish.
"We're hoping that this event will be a big success."
About the main course
"Mike Adams from Bon Vivant in Smithfield will be doing the wine tasting for us and Edwin Little (Smithfield Catering By Edwin) is doing the catering," Hipp said. "We have a special dish prepared for a white wine and a red wine and a dessert wine."
Hipp and Little have been sifting through old cookbooks for recipes of authentic foods for the event.
Among the offerings, guests can look forward to sampling stuffed dates with pecans wrapped in bacon and sliced turkey on cinnamon raisin bread topped with cranberry relish. Marinated vegetables, fresh fruit, assorted cheeses and homemade pound cake with a variety of sauces will also be included in the fare.
"We have created a signature dessert that we call the Boykin's Tavern Tart. It's a fruit tart, and we're going to serve it at the wine tasting with the dessert wine," said Hipp. "We plan to give people the recipe for it before they leave."
Wine and war
Following the tasting, costumed interpreters in Colonial- and Victorian-era attire will share a little wine history with patrons and offer tours of the historic tavern.
On the tavern's front lawn, an encampment of War of 1812 re-enactors will commemorate a militia muster.
"This is our Christmas program for this year," said Hipp. "We've done other things in the past, but we decided to (stage) everything right here in the tavern this year."
Bob Ruegsegger, bruegse@yahoo.com
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