The Successful Return of the Iron Vintner Challenge

Posted @ Jun. 21 2011 03:39PM by Ethan - eat-drink

All photos by Jeff Caven, resorthotelphotographer.com

The Iron Vintner Challenge at Woodinville's Willows Lodge is winding down its second year. Inspired by Food Network's Iron Chef, the event puts Woodinvile winemakers against one another in a cooking competion. Each vintner gets 1 hour to make an entree and an appetizer with a secret ingredient revealed by Barking Frog's Bobby Moore. 

Throughout the one hour competition, guests are treated to Moore's play by play calls, a silent auction, and best of all, heart warming talks from guests like little Carlos, who attends the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center, Willows Lodge's charity of choice.

The contestants' cuisines are picked apart (literally, then consumed) by a panel of discenering judges like local celeb chef Ethan Stowell, food writer Leslie Kelly and yours truly. 

Even though the winemakers are friendly with each other offstage, competion so far has been fierce. This year's winemaker/cheftestants featured a trio of Chris-es (Gorman, Sparkman and Upchurch) and John Bigelow. In round one, Gorman faced off against Sparkman in battle pork, with Gorman eeking out a close victory, assuring him a spot in the Championship.

Round two saw Upchurch take on Bigelow in battle clams (yikes! said the contestants). It was a rocky start with equipment trouble for both winemakers, but Upchurch managed to overcome an injury timeout (he nearly cut his finger off...the dude's serious about his sharp knives) to move into the final against Gorman. 

The Championship Battle takes place Wednesday, June 22 at 5:30pm at the Willows Lodge. There are a few tickets available for the finale, but act quickly, they'll be gone before long. The Iron Vintner Challange caps off with a winemaker dinner, next week Wednesday, June 29th at 7pm, where a portion of the tickets will go towards the nearly $7,000 already raised for Little Bit.

Unfortunately, it looks like tickets to the winemaker dinner are sold out. But 425 had Barking Frog hold on to a couple of them specifically for our readers to purchase. Cost: $135 (it's for charity!), and the menu looks like this. If you want to attend this sold out dinner, tell us your favorite Washington wine below by Monday, June 27. We'll pick a name at random, and we'll contact you to get your info, and the tickets for the dinner will be yours to purchase. 

UPDATE: THE LAST TWO TICKETS WERE AUCTIONED OFF AT THE IRON VINTNER CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND. THE WINEMAKER DINNER IS NOW SOLD OUT.