Indie Wine Fest snags Michael Hebb

Keep those rotten tomatoes at home folks, Portland's infamous culinary reheat is scheduled to return to town early next month. Michael Hebb, currently the mastermind behind Seattle-based One Pot dinner series, is scheduled to be a panelist at the Portland Indie Wine Festival's May 3 seminar "Terroir 101: Can you taste place in chocolate, coffee and wine?" The event sounds fascinating, but we're also interested in what taste will be left in Hebb's mouth after his first public event (except for a small One Pot dinner in 2007) in his old hometown--where the ashes from the very public Ripe restaurant empire implosion in 2006 are still smoldering.

Hebb will be joined by fellow panelists Kate Simon, senior editor at Imbibe, Aubrey Lindley, co-owner of Cacao, Mason Sager, roaster at Caffe Vita, Athena Pappas, winemaker at Boedecker Cellars, and Joe Whinney, founder of Theo Chocolates.

The Fourth Annual Portland Indie Wine Festival shines a spotlight on Oregon's small, independent wine producers May 2-4 at Urban Wineworks in Northwest Portland. It's also hosting May 2 seminar, Natural Winemaking in the Age of Technology, that may prove to be even more inflammatory as winemakers grapple with what should be added to wine besides grapes. Moderated by New York Times writer and author Alice Feiring, the panelists will include Aaron Leiberman of Cottonwood Winery (Oregon), Amy Lillard of Domaine de la Gramiere (France), Clark Smith of WineSmith (California) and Doug Tunnell of Brick House Vineyards (Oregon).

More information about the festival is at www.indiewinefestival.com.