ElevAsian Pairing Lounge: Wine & Spirit Makers
We are absolutely excited to introduce the Pairing Lounge at this year's ElevAsian Night Market Fundraiser! The tasting menu has been carefully curated by Clara Klein, the Lead Sommelier at Sunday Vinyl, featuring wines and spirits made by AAPI women-owned/led businesses. These drinks perfectly complement the Passport dishes. You won't find this kind of experience anywhere else, and we'd love to have you come and discover more about these amazing wine and spirit makers.
Importer: Doug Krenick Selections
Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2021
We were founded by father and daughter team, Howard Mozeico and Jessica Mozeico. Howard began making wine in his garage in 1984 as a hobby while he was a software engineer at four startup technology companies. His passion was fueled and he took enology classes, won amateur winemaking competitions, and helped local winemakers.
Jessica grew up helping her dad with his winemaking hobby. She fell in love with wine, though it was a passion she cultivated from the sidelines as she pursued an undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, an MBA from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, and a career in biotechnology marketing. After leading biotechnology drug launches and marketing teams, Jessica founded a consulting firm to provide strategic planning services.
However, the opportunity to make wine together caused both to throw in their corporate ID badges. They ran the winery together until Howard’s death in 2017. Jessica learned everything about winemaking from her dad and is inspired by her late father's legacy and daughter's future. She says, "I have the honor and responsibility to carry Et Fille forward in a manner that is consistent with my dad's vision, values, and palate. I will continue building the legacy of Et Fille for my daughter.
Importer: High Road Spirits
Oka Brewery
Lucky Dog Sake
While an unusual format in the US the sake pack is very common in Japan, a lightweight and portable way to enjoy sake under cherry blossoms in a park, for a riverside picnic or while reading the paper on a train ride home from work.
The name Maneki Wanko is a play on the well known Maneki Neko or “Lucky Cats” (Maneki=Beckoning/Welcoming, Wan=Bark, Ko=Cute suffix)
Made in Nada in Hyogo, famed for Miyamizu, an excellent mineral rich water source perfect for sake making. Hyogo sake is known for balance and this is no exception: soft and light, creamy and smooth, not overly sweet or dry, plenty of flavor and character.
Importer: High Road Spirits
OKA KURA
Yuzu Liqueur
Oka Kura is produced by the legendary Tsutsumi Distillery in the Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. Tsutsumi has been producing shochu for nearly 150 years in the Hitoyoshi Basin just 5km from the Kuma River, the longest river in Kyushu. It is one of only 28 distilleries certified by the World Trade Organization as a Kuma Shochu producer, a designation similar to the DOCs of Scotch, tequila, & Cognac. The Kuma River is renowned for its reputation as the clearest stream in Japan, lending itself to crafting fine sake and shochu, all from rice grown within the Kuma River system.
Produced at Tsutsumi Distillery, Oka Kura crafts distinctly Japanese spirits and liqueurs from local shochu, Junmai sake, and hyper-regional botanicals.
Influenced by the fortified, aromatized wine producers of Europe while drawing on Japanese tradition, Oka Kura has taken the cocktail world by storm with the introduction of their flagship Bermutto. A shochu-based yuzu liqueur and sweet, ume-based formulation of their core Bermutto demonstrate expertise in crafting products of exceptional quality for use in cocktails by the world’s most discerning bartenders and mixologists. Each new expression from Oka Kura not only provides endless drinking possibilities, but a gateway to Japanese flavors and traditions.
Importer: Harvest Wine Company
Akiko’s Cuvée, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast 2017
Each vintage since our inaugural 2002, Freeman has released an Akiko’s Cuvée. Akiko Freeman and her winemaking staff taste each barrel of Pinot in the winery from that vintage and choose their favorites. Then, each person’s top barrels are put together in a blend (or cuvée), and we subsequently taste each of the samples blind, so that no one knows whose favorite barrels are in which blend. We call this Akiko’s Cuvée since her blend almost always wins this blind tasting.
A native to Tokyo, Akiko attributes her love of wine to her grandfather, whose influence imbued her with a lifelong passion for the enigmatic beauty of great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. After earning her master’s degree in Italian Renaissance art history from Stanford in the mid-1990s, Akiko traveled throughout Europe and as far as South Africa to explore the great winemaking regions of the world. Returning to California in 1997, she worked with Ken to realize their longtime dream of establishing a small, family-run winery dedicated to crafting expressive, cool-climate California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Today Akiko’s gifted palate guides every Freeman wine, every vintage. When she and Ken founded Freeman Vineyard & Winery in 2001, she immersed herself in the world of viticulture and winemaking, and apprenticed herself to renowned winemaker Ed Kurtzman. Akiko now oversees every aspect of Freeman’s winemaking program, from the organic farming of the estate vineyards and the selection of grower partners to fermentations, racking, lot evaluations and blending. Her vision and refined palate have positioned Freeman as one of the great benchmarks for cool-climate New World wines, while establishing Akiko as a winemaking talent in her own right.
Enjoy exclusive access to these wine & spirit pairings at ElevAsian’s Pairing Lounge! Get your tickets today!
