By: Virginie Boone

Hank Shaw is considered by many to be the foremost authority on wild food in America. He’s won James Beard awards, was consulting editor for the fish and game sections of The Joy of Cooking, has blogged under the name Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and written multiple books on foraging, fishing and hunting that delve deep into the stories behind his travels into nature and include recipes on how to make the most of these adventures.

Borderlands is his most recent book, released earlier this year. Passalacqua Winery owner Jason Passalacqua and winemaker Jessica Boone, who also love hunting, fishing, foraging, gardening, preserving and the outdoors, hosted Shaw in July to welcome the outdoor community to wine and enjoy wine with wild food.

Passalacqua has been hunting and foraging for most of his life and drinking wines with these meats and mushrooms. Boone has been making the Passalacqua wines for years in a way that pairs them well with wild game. They now have recommended pairings with wild icons on the back of their labels and have partnered with outdoor brands like Yeti and Sitka as well as conservation organizations and wild chefs to further make connections and broaden the wine drinking community into these worlds.

The two feel that the hunting/outdoor community has been largely ignored by the wine industry and they are doing what they can to change that. Many outdoor pursuits are more associated with beer or bourbon, but Passalacqua doesn’t think it has to be that way. That once wine is introduced to folks in a casual, yet meaningful way, with its connection to the land, wine makes all the sense in the world. One of their favorite things to say is wine pairs with fresh air.

“We know exactly where each grape in our glass comes from,” Passalacqua says. “We like to know where our food comes from too.”

To that end, they eat everything they garden, forage, fish and hunt and prepare these fresh ingredients simply, making the connection between wild game and wine from a belief that being connected to the source makes eating and drinking more fulfilling.

Passalacqua is a fourth-generation vintner and native of Healdsburg. His family has long farmed wine grapes in the Dry Creek Valley, the centerpiece being 110 acres planted off Mill Creek Road by his parents Tom and Sandi in 1996.

Tom descends from Francesco Passalacqua, also known as Frank, who came to America in 1865 at the age of 18, first to San Francisco and then up to Healdsburg to plant grapes. He opened Fitch Mountain Cellars in 1895; the original house and half an acre of grapes still exist on Fitch Street in town.

Frank’s widow Rachel bought the Oliveto Wine Company in 1930; three years later her daughter Edith launched Sonoma County Cellars, becoming one of the first women to make wine and own a winery in California post-Prohibition and first female member of the Wine Institute.

Jason bought the property on Lambert Bridge Road in 2003, opening Passalacqua Winery the following year. They produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from both estate grapes and nearby vineyards.

Passalacqua hired Boone as winemaker in 2012, after she had worked in the Napa Valley and at Armida Winery in Dry Creek.

The mushrooms they forage in the wet winter months come from the Dry Creek hills around the winery, a skill passed down at Passalacqua from generation to generation. Golden and White Chanterelles, King and Queen Bolete, Manzanita Bolete and Coccoli are the four major types they find, grown under Madrone, Manzanita and Oak trees, with mushroom hunting taking place three weeks after the first three inches of rain, per Italian tradition.

While Passalacqua and Boone are natural cooks, they have partnered with chefs across the country to share recipes and recommendations for their wines. These include such folks as Adam Berkelmans, aka The Intrepid Eater, Jaime Teigen, Jeff Benda, Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley, Jesse Griffiths, Lance Lewis, Justin Townsend and many others. They also have a list of suggested sources for many of these wild foods, from elk, boar, duck and quail to salmon, crab and swordfish.

Boone says every decision she makes in the vineyard and in the winery is with the goal of having her wines complement an array of wild game, from fermentation to barrel selection. Wild game is nuanced and has a purity of flavor, so the wine should too.

Image By: Passalacqua Winery