“Thin Air” Chili Cook-off
Across America, Labor day is looked at as a weekend to kick back, hit the mountains, rivers, beaches or maybe even the sofa and just enjoy a little extra time with friends and family. For Niels, Bimmer and friends, Labor Day means it’s time for the “Thin Air” Chili Cook-Off in Kirkwood! For the second time in three years the Castoro Crew entered the contest, poured wine and made the most of a beautiful mountain weekend.
This year our theme was “Peace, Love and Chili” to pair with our 2011 Harvest tie-dye t-shirts. The Chili itself was based on traditional recipes, fresh ingredients and a little Whale Rock Zinfandel. Most of the produce used in the chili came straight out of Bimmer’s home garden, making it fresh, organic and delicious. The chili was finished off simmering with Whale Rock Zin and a touch of dark chocolate! It was really, really good stuff!
All in all, the contest had 12 contestants, multiple breweries and a handful of wineries in attendance, not to mention the backdrop of Kirkwood Mountain. Sounds like heaven right? (Well it was pretty darn close!) After tasting through all of the Chilis, beers and wines it was pretty tough to say whose was the best, especially since they were all pretty good. (Might be the beer talking)
In the end, we didn’t win best Chili but we did win Best Booth and that says a lot about our spirit! We had a great crew and people really enjoyed stopping by to try our wine and our Chili. Maybe next time we’ll win the big prize, in the mean time, we’ve already started planning our next recipe!
Cheers,
Luke
