We recently had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a special event with family and friends at the Dono dal Cielo Vineyard in Newcastle, CA.
We arrived and immediately made our way to the patio area outside the warehouse style barrel room. We were instantly greeted as if we were family and my favorite part of the meet and greet was with Pearl, the winery’s “farm” dog.
She was very friendly and mingled with all the party guests. The kids at the gathering instantly fell in love. Pearl definitely got her fill of hugs and kisses that evening.
Even though the warehouse is huge – you enter through a regular size door… I didn’t expect to see what was on the other side.
A wonderful bar and tasting area with an area filled with boutique style gifts.
The wine barrel tables were my favorite part of the decor. I loved the glass tops where you could see through to the different corks.
Firevine Wood Fired Pizza was hired to cater the event.. A mobile authentic Italian wood-fired oven on a custom-built trailer – Yes please, sign me up to own one of those!
All prep was done right off the trailer. We were able to watch him work the dough, build the pizzas and place them right into the oven.
The amazing smells permeated the entire patio area. While others rushed to try the wonderful wines, I grabbed myself a beer (Wine has been triggering migraines for me lately) and there is just nothing better than pizza and a nice, cold beer.
My first two slices were the “Marg” – Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil. I’m a HUGE fan of most wood fired margherita pizza and this one didn’t disappoint. Other choices were “Pep” – Tomato sauce, pepperoni, garlic and fresh basil – it too was cooked to perfection. The fresh garlic really changed things up. The third pizza was their “Zola” – Tomato sauce, gorgonzola, spicy Italian sausage and sopressata salami. I tried that one too… Yes, I had 5 pieces of pizza that night and while I was rather impressed by that number, a few of the guys had between 8-10 pieces… all you can eat pizza is about as good as it gets. I did have some of the mixed green salad – but I would say it was definitely on the side.
Bottles of wine flowed and I had a wonderful time hanging out on the patio chatting. The view to my right wasn’t bad either. As the sun went down, we further explored the grounds.
I spent the last hour taking lots of family and friend photos in the beautiful light. The farm kitty also made an appearance :).
This vineyard is a true gem. There are picnic tables on the grounds and lots of areas to hangout. I see myself going back with a group of friends for a fall picnic.
While I may not be cooking much lately, I certainly have been enjoying lots of time with my family and have loved every minute of it.
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You did a nice job on this………….it did turn out to be a wonderful experience and I think everyone there had a great time.
All-you-can-eat woodfire pizza?? Dangerous! That looks excellent! Makes me miss weekend getaways to wine country.
I WANT ME A SLICE OF MARG! That crust looks flawless.
Pearl looks like someone I’d like to spend some quality pizza time with.