Master Sommelier Dinner: Miura + Clos Pissarra with Emmanuel Kemiji

Join us for an evening with Master Sommelier Emmanuel Kemiji, owner of Miura Vineyards in California and Clos Pissarra in Spain. We will have a reception toast followed by four courses paired with wines from Emmanuel's portfolio.

Emmanuel Kemiji M.S., Owner of Miura Vineyards & Managing Director of Clos Pissarra

Born in the United States and raised in Spain and England, Emmanuel is a graduate of the University of California at Davis. In addition to his Economics and Spanish Literature degrees, he studied Viticulture and Oenology, expanding his interest in wine and eventually leading to the formation of Miura Vineyards in 1995. Soon to follow were Almvs in 2000, Antiqv2s in 2001, and two projects in Spain – Arrels in 2003 and Clos Pissarra in 2005.

Emmanuel acted as The Ritz-Carlton Director of Wine & Spirits from 1988 to 1999, first at Laguna Niguel and then at the renowned The Dining Room in San Francisco. In 1989 Emmanuel became the twelfth American to pass the Master Sommelier exam in London, England and one of only ten to date to pass on his first attempt. In the same year, he received the “Sommelier of the Year” award by the California Restaurant Writers Association. Emmanuel was also chosen “Wine Director of the Year” in the Critics Choice Awards, and was honored in the August 1999 issue of San Francisco Magazine. The San Francisco Chronicle named Emmanuel as one of the “10 Winemakers to Watch for 2000.”

In 2006, Emmanuel received the Wine Industry Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League for exemplary commitment to community and charity. In the past he has also been a wine judge at the Los Angeles County Fair and the San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Chef Tom Gray, Executive Chef + Owner, Moxie Kitchen + Cocktails

Chef Tom Gray's culinary adventures have taken him through kitchens across the country and back again. From 1994 - 1998 he was the Executive Sous Chef at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley campus. During this time, Gray mastered the intricacies of local sourcing, skills for developing seasonally-influenced menus and nuances of building relationships with growers.

Living in California's wine country developed more than Gray's culinary skills in that he also became a keenly interested and knowledgeable about wines. During his days off, he worked in the cellar at a Calistoga boutique winery and learned every process of winemaking from harvest to fermentation to bottling, as well as how to properly pair foods with wines. The latter is a skill that he uses for each new dish he creates not only on his restaurant menus, but for special winemaker pairings such as this.

MIURA

Miura started out one evening in late 1994. A group friends, most of them from The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, chefs Gary Danko, Laurence Jossel (Nopa) and Gerald Hirigoyen (Piperade), as well Nick Peyton (Cyrus) amongst others, had gathered for drinks after work at Master Sommelier Emmanuel Kemiji’s apartment when one the chefs suggested that it would be a great opportunity to experience a harvest first hand. Kemiji was put in charge of the project and it became a new challenge for him. He eventually left The Ritz-Carlton in the summer of 1999 to dedicate himself solely to Miura Vineyards..

The wines that are produced by Miura are wines that Kemiji, from his experience as a major wine buyer for 18 years, feels represents the finest vineyards California has to offer- sites such as Pisoni, Rochioli, Williams Ranch and Hudson.

CLOS PISSARRA

This is a project born out of friendship and a longing to return to ones roots. The idea took hold after a long afternoon lunch at Piperade on a summer’s day back in 2003, when the opportunity to buy a vineyard in Montsant near Barcelona, had just surfaced. Master Sommelier and proprietor of Miura Vineyards, Emmanuel Kemiji and Chefs Gerald Hirigoyen, Sylvain Portay and Laurent Manrique were mesmerized by the romance of possibly owning a vineyard and producing a wine with their own signature. In 2005 the venture grew to include more friends, significant among them Roger Lethander and Bob Hackman, and several more vineyards in neighboring Priorat. In 2010 a winery was finally completed and over time the production will reach a scant 2500 cases but the object here has never been commercial and is instead driven by quality and pride.

Located about 85 miles southwest of Barcelona, Priorat (meaning priory in Catalan) can trace its roots back to the 12th century when a group of Carthusian Monks that had been persecuted out of France stumbled upon a sheppard who the night before had a vision whereby he saw angels coming down from the clouds on a huge ladder. He pointed to an enormous pine tree where he had seen the ladder propped up against in his dream and it was there, at the base of a huge mountain that the monks decided to build an incredible monastery and called it Scala Dei (stairway to God). It was these same monks that planted the first vineyards in the area.

Priorat is a foreboding place. It’s like walking back in time as one can easily envision that very little has changed here over time. Its amazing that anything can grow here as the soil is mostly made up of a soft, crumbly slate and one sees almost no dirt on the ground of a very mountainous terrain. The vines struggle constantly in this brutal and harsh environment, but that is exactly what makes the wines so special.