Full Belly Files | My Highlights from Hospice du Rhône

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on April 29, 2022. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

My first time attending Hospice du Rhône (HdR) was in 2011, when the Paso Robles–based ode to Rhône-style wines — as in those based on syrah, grenache, mourvèdre, viognier, roussanne, and nearly two dozen other varieties from the Rhône Valley — was celebrating its 19th year.

I wrote in detail about that experience here, though I did not announce the funniest bit. Still a pretty hand-to-mouth journalist back then — one who was crashing in the super-Spartan, bed-only rooms above the Pine Street Saloon even though I was 33 years old — I’d assumed my attendance at the Chateau Rayas dinner had been covered by the friends who’d invited me. Only when the bills came out did I realize that I owed about $250 for the pleasure, which, at that point, was the most I’d ever paid for dinner. But I still remember the Rayas, so consider that money well spent.