CENTRE HALL — For foodies and wine lovers, Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery’s newest pairing event provides the opportunity to enjoy fine dining and local wine. On Friday, April 12, the winery launched the first iteration of its monthly Friday Night Flights & Bites event.
The event featured four wines paired with gourmet courses by Jennifer’s Kitchen. This new endeavor highlights an exciting development for the winery.
“During the COVID years, we decided to expand the tasting room and kind of change our business model,” Linda Weaver, the second-generation owner of Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery, shared.
Weaver’s parents, Joe and Betty Carroll, planted the vineyard in 1987 and opened it to the public in 1990. However, at the time, the primary goal of the winery was to produce and provide quality grapes to other wineries in the area, Weaver noted.
The winery had a tasting bar where people could try a sample of wines while they shopped, but when Weaver assumed ownership in 2016, with the help of her husband, Steve Weaver, the winery’s vineyard manager, she saw the potential for growth to make the winery a strong competitor in the local and statewide wine industry.
“With the expansion of our tasting room, we are now able to offer seated tastings. We changed the mood, expanded one of the rooms that we had, added seating. We have an outdoor covered tasting area and a pondside tasting area,” Weaver explained. “That’s enabled us to offer wine and food pairing events, which we had started several years ago, but kind of decided that we needed to have something a little more regular for people.”
Weaver knew Jennifer’s Kitchen owner Jennifer Dellantonio through a dinner group, noting she was always impressed with what Dellantonio would make.
“At one of the dinners I said, ‘Jennifer, you know, would you be interested in trying this?’ It kind of started from there — just a conversation over dinner,” Weaver said.
The inaugural event featured four courses: a spring pea crostini with rainbow radish and prosciutto, paired with Chardonnay; ricotta and quail egg ravioli with truffle sage butter, paired with Linden Vale Rose; pork Wellington with macerated cherries, paired with Cabernet Sauvignon; and chocolate panna cotta with spiced pepita brittle, paired with Red Raspberry Sangria.
All of the wines are Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery’s own and made by winemaker Scott Hilliker, who Weaver recognizes as a major asset to her business.
The first Friday Night Flights & Bites quickly sold out, though for those who could not get a coveted reservation, the next event is on Friday, May 10. The event is $40 a person and is for an hour and a half per seating.
Weaver, who goes out for dinner each week with her mom seeking special dining experiences, knows what makes a meal and a tasting memorable.
“It’s like having a little bit of an event around your meal. You’re all sharing the same thing. There’s something to talk about. There’s something going on other than just sitting down to a meal. You’re sharing the same food and the same wine with others and then talking about it,” Weaver explained. “We’re on the side of Mount Nittany, we overlook a pond. It’s a beautiful view and it’s an environment that’s out of town. It’s in the country. So this gives people an alternative to do something that’s reasonably priced, where they can learn something and they can take their friends to and socialize over.”
Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery offers a wide range of events throughout the year, from chocolate and wine pairings to free hotdogs on the Fourth of July, and Friday Night Flights & Bites promises to be a great addition to the winery’s calendar.
To register for the May Friday Night Flights & Bites, visit Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery’s website to reserve a spot.
