Wine tasting at Vin’Tij Grand Boulevard (San)Destin
Wife Linda and her visiting girlfriends went shopping at Grand Boulevard in Sandestin, leaving me to my own devices, so I spent the afternoon at
Vin’Tij Restaurant and Wine Boutique/Bar.
Vin’Tij Food & Wine has been a local favorite restaurant for over 26 years and was recently voted as the “Best Restaurant in Walton County” by Emerald Coast Magazine.
Most notable is a collection of rare, highly allocated ultra-premium labels.
Vin’Tij is the fullfillment of the vision based on passion for food, wine and people of founder/owner Todd Reber. Todd worked in the food and wine trade in several highly acclaimed restaurants along the Emerald Coast starting in 1990. He opened Vin’Tij Food & Wine in 1998 building upon relationships he had developed with wine makers, purveyors and sommeliers throughout the world, and his learnings from wine educational events in California, Oregon, Germany and Spain.
Vin'Tij Food & Wine won “Best Restaurant In Walton County” in the 2023 Perfect in South Walton Awards in recognition of Todd, Chef Ignacio and the entire Vin’Tij team making it ‘one of the best overall dining experiences in the area’.
Chef Ignacio Bernal was inspired by his mother to develop an interest in and pursue a career in culinary arts. He began training under Chef Todd Misner at Stinky’s Fish Camp in 2012. Under Misner’s mentorship, Bernal’s skills and cooking techniques elevated to a new level. It was at Stinky’s Fish Camp that Chef Bernal was promoted to sous chef as he continued to fine tune his skills and continued to grow under Misner’s leadership.
In 2018, Chef Ignacio joined Vin’tij to apply his vision and knowledge of wine and food pairing as Chef de Cuisine. At Vin'Tij he has developed diversified menu with unique dishes to compliment the extensive wine selection. Chef Ignacio is Vin’Tij’s partnering Chef where he has received the “BEST CHEF AWARD” in 2025 from VIP Destin Magazine!
After trolling through their vast wine selection I assembled a mixed case of unique and interesting labels to add to our cellar collection, and for enjoying BYOB in a Vin’Tij dinner planned for later in the week.
Meanwhile, joined by the ladies, we enjoyed a fun impromptu wine tasting with several wines paired with selections from the Vin’Tij menu; Vin’Tij’s Bread Basket with Roasted Garlic, Marinated Olives, Basil Roasted Red Peppers, and Parmesean Cheese; Oyster Crostini - fried oysters on baked bread with sauces, and Vin-Tij flatbreads with tomato and balsamic sauces and cheeses.
Our food and wine experience was curated by Danny G, Vin’Tij day manager and wine education director.
For pairing with the appetizers, we tasted several wines from Thompson Winery and Vineyards in Sonoma. Owner Michael Thompson is a local resident in the community and frequents Vin’Tij and partners in sourcing his wines.
What great fun and how serendipitous to learn Michael Thompson and his wine cellar were featured in the Private Cellar column in
Wine Spectator Magazine, the s
ame column that featured this author and my cellar.
Thompson’s cellar was featured in “A Strategy Based on Charity, by Peter D. Meltzer, in the October 31, 2010 issue, while our cellar feature. “Programmed for Wine - Rick McNees fuses his love for computers with a taste for Bordeaux”, by Joseph Robbins, was in the Wine Spectator Collecting column section on June 15, 2001.
Thompson Winery owner Michael Thompson was founder and CEO of an electronics manufacturing company. He spent a small fortune collecting wine and over time raised more than $500,000 donating wine to and purchasing wine at charity auctions. He was a patron of Emeril Lagasse's Carnivale du Vin, Nashville's L'Eté du Vin, and was a founding board member of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation.
We attended the Destin Charity Wine event with our Pour Boys wine group last year.
Thompson started collecting in the late 1990s with an initial cellar of just more than 600 bottles.
Thompson's home cellar in his local residence grew to between 2,000 and 3,000 bottles depending on the rate and pace of his donations. Initially, Thompson focused on California vineyards, but soon expanded his interests through wine groups, tasting dinners and meeting as many strategic people in the wine world as possible, traveling to Burgundy, Tuscany, Umbria, the Rhône, and recently to Spain.
Thompson and his wife Valerie eventually acquired and developed Thompson 31Fifty Winery and Vineyards, their ‘piece of heaven’, in Sonoma. Their small, family-owned wine estate and vineyard is in the Russian River Valley and produces premium and ultra-premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.
So, in support of this local owner producer, we tasted a flight of Thompson Winery and Vineyards Rose’, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Producer’s Notes - This wine has a beautiful pink hue. The nose is bursting and vibrant with bright fresh citrus and floral aromas. Fresh picked strawberries and bright red flowers explode up front, and tropical notes bring you back home.’
“The palate is intense and concentrated but framed with lively acidity and a super clean finish. The freshness of this wine makes it a perfect match for cheese or charcuterie.”
Just over 100 cases of this label were produced.
This was delicious with the fresh bread, tapenade and the Oysters Crostini.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=5096294
RM 89 points.
We then moved to …Thompson 31Fifty Sonoma County Chardonnay 2021
This is sourced from the Sonoma County Lolita Ranch Vineyard in Forestville, CA. It is farmed by the renowned grower viticulturist Lee Martinelli Jr. The vineyard lies on a steep slope in Forestville with escalating elevations.
Forestville sits twelve miles west and slightly north of Santa Rosa, halfway between Rt 101 and the Pacific Coast. Forestville Main Street, California State Route 116, known locally as the Pocket Canyon Highway, connects the coastal community of Jenner in the west and U.S. Route 101 and the Sonoma County Airport to the east.
Forestville lies at the confluence of the Laguna de Santa Rosa and Mark West Creeks with the Russian River.
Producers’ notes - Powerful yet balanced, this wine is beautifully structured. Plump, fleshy and full bodied with lemongrass aromas followed by Granny Apple and melon flavors. Rich and strong with an elegant finish with a touch of minerality.
RM 90 points.
Pivoting to the pizza flatbreads, we tasted the 31Fifty Pinot Noir.
Thompson Winery 31Fifty Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2019
This is sourced from two sites selected for this wine, located in the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley. Both vineyards were planted by the late grower viticulturalist Ulises Valdez. An additional Russian River Valley site was selected for this blend from an in-named ‘multi-generational Sonoma County Family’.
Winemaker Patrick Sullivan crafted this unique style, producing an elegant Pinot Noir that reflects the best qualities of the three vineyard sites.
This release is a blend uses grapes from site specific clones of Calera, Pommard and 667, crafted to express the traits of each clone as well as the soils and site locations.
Winemaker notes - “This wine is silky and balanced as it opens extensively in the glass. Hints of bright raspberries, ripe cherry, dark plum, cocoa and black olive meet a long-lasting finish on the back palate.”
RM 91 points.
We then moved to a delicious flatbread pizza with balsamic tomato sauce and multiple cheeses. With the flatbread we drank a hearty Italian Piemonte Barbera varietal wine.
Villa Sparina Piemonte Barbera 2023
Villa Sparina Barbera del Monferrato DOC 2023
This 100% Barbera wine is from Villa Sparina, a winery in the commune of Gavi in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. It was founded by the Moccagatta family back in the 1700s. The estate lies a few kilometers in the sometimes rugged and steep hills just north of Gavi, which is about 60 miles southeast of Turin and about 30 miles north of the coastal town of Genoa.
The vast 270 acre Villa Sparina lies in the rural hamlet of Monterotondo, in the heart of Gavi. The estate consists of a resort hotel, an extensive winery with eighteenth century cellars, and a hospitality center with gardens overlooking the nearly 170 acres of picturesque vineyards.
The vineyards are some of the prime sites for the production of the Cortese grapes, planted to native grape varieties dedicated to the production of Gavi and Barbera wines. The vineyards face mainly south and south-west, with an altitude of around 300m – 320m with clay and limestone soils.
The prime grape growing region is surrounded by the Alps to the north and northwest, and the Ligurian mountain range in the south. It is the only wine-growing region in Italy with only moderate Mediterranean influence with warm summers and cold winters. The influence of the Alps results in a continental climate with large day/night differences.
Due to its centuries-old relationship with France, Piedmont not only has a Francophile influence, it was one of Italy's early flourishing wine-growing regions long before any of the more recent ones. It was also a Frenchman who introduced Piedmont to its most famous wine, Barolo, made from the Nebbiolo grape.
Barbaresco is also produced in a small, exclusive region from the Nebbiolo grape variety.
In addition to Nebbiolo wines, red wines are also produced from the grape varieties Dolcetto and Barbera.
In 2000, Barbera was the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy, after Sangiovese and Montepulciano. The grape is native to the region and was planted back as early as the fourteenth century. Century-old vines still exist in the regional vineyards.
The Gavi region from the Commune Gavi also produces a rather light and neutral fruity white wine from the Cortese variety and Arneis, a variety that almost died out and has been recultivated only in the last 20 years. Also noteworthy is the light, delicate sparkling and sweet Moscato.
The Villa Sparina vines are primarily the most important local grape variety Cortese grown in a 1945-era vineyard producing fruits that display savouriness, minerality and incredible longevity.
Villa Sparina produces an extensive portfolio of red and white wines, all of which are bottled in their unique signature bottles shaped from ancient historic glass production profile.
Gavi is in the DOCG region of Cortese di Gavi; Cortese di Gavi produced within the comune of Gavi may be labeled "Gavi di Gavi".
This wine is 100% Barbera and was partially aged in oak barrels in the historical XVIII Century cellars of the estate.
This wine provided great QPR - Quality Price Ratio for good value fun sipping and was ideally paired with the robust cheese and pizza sauce as well as the tapenade of fresh olives with balsamic oil and fresh bread.
This wine was rated 92 points by James Suckling.
Intense bright ruby red color, full bodied, concentrated rich ripe briery dark blackberry and black cherry fruits are accented by balsamic, asphalt and slate with a a long tongue puckering flavorful gripping tannin and fresh acidic finish.
RM 90 points.
We returned Saturday night for a delicious dinner and exquisite wine pairing.
