Rustic Canyon celebrates the best things in life – delectable farm-to-table food and flavorful vine-to-bottle wine. The restaurant, which opened after founder Josh Loeb held a series of successful dinner parties at his beautiful Rustic Canyon home, is helmed by Executive Chef Andy Doubrava, who is passionate about visiting local farmers markets, has excellent relationships with the farmers and features their names on the restaurant’s seasonally changing menu.

The beet, avocado and red quinoa salad at Rustic Canyon is sprinkled with pistachios and pistachio dirt. (photo by Jill Weinlein)

Ferdinando Mucerino, the wine manager and sommelier at Rustic Canyon, invites wine makers to collaborate, allowing the cozy restaurant to offer informative wine pairing dinners. While the wine list includes an array of local artisan, hand-crafted producers from California, Oregon, Italy, France and Spain, Mucerino highlighted wines from Santa Ynez Valley’s Beckmen Vineyards.

Winemaker Steve Beckmen joined our small group of oenophiles at Rustic Canyon last week. The evening started with Mucerino pouring two Beckmen wines: a lovely 2017 Purisima Mountain Vineyard grenache rosé and crisp viognier. We sipped these wines while nibbling on Milo & Olive bread, served with cultured butter and ENZO olive oil. The rosé was delicious and Beckmen shared that he keeps the skin on his grenache grapes a little longer than a French rosé’s to add richness and depth of flavor to his wine. He also informed us that his 2017 Purisima Mountain Vineyard viognier grapes are farmed bio-dynamically. The wine offered tasting notes of Fuji apple, jasmine, passion fruit, white ginger, pineapple, guava, melon and apricot, but was not overly sweet. Its long, clean finish with lasting acidity paired well with a dazzling dish of quartered beets and whole berries with avocado, crunchy red quinoa and chopped pistachios. Some of the nuts were pulverized into a fine powder that Doubrava calls “pistachio dirt.”

For the next course, Mucerino poured a 2016 Beckmen cuvee Le Bec and Beckmen Santa Ynez Valley grenache. Both went well with ricotta fritta, one of the most popular dishes at Rustic Canyon, which arrived with three fried sticks floating in a luscious yellow sauce with a mound of sautéed greens, a shaving of cheese and micro flowers that added touch of beauty. Mucerino informed me that the chef uses Kong’s broccoli, Maggie’s green leaf sorrel, and orange French mimolette cheese. “The fried ricotta sticks taste similar to broccoli and cheddar soup meet a mozzarella stick,” he said. They are heavenly and a must-order. After a few sips of the Beckmen grenache, I appreciated the white pepper and raspberry jam aroma with lavender, nutmeg and strawberry tasting notes. The Cuvee Le Bec offered more bright fruit and spices, as well as fine tannins that carry the flavors on the long finish.

Fried ricotta sticks float on a pool of sauce with broccoli, grean leaf sorrel and mimolette cheese. (photo courtesy of Rustic Canyon)

Two hearty entrees arrived at the table with two bottles of Beckmen’s syrah. The first poured was a 2016 Purisima Mountain Vineyard syrah that we enjoyed with a platter of grilled grass-fed hanger steak with bay blue cheese, Zuckerman’s asparagus and chile de arbol. Next, a platter of roasted Autonomy Farms chicken arrived covered in hot honey and a sprinkling of chopped California pecans. Pours of 2017 Purisima Mountain Vineyard syrah clone No. 1 offered notes of plum, blackberry and chocolate with pleasing, oceanic minerality.

We finished with an    artisan cheese plate, thin slices of dense sunflower bread, a puddle of raw honey and sweet, baked rosemary walnuts. Beckman urged us to enjoy dessert with a pour of his 2008 Purisima Mountain Vineyard syrah clone No. 1. It’s made from a UC Davis shiraz clone from vines planted in 1868 in Australia. Beckmen told us that these 2008 grapes were hand harvested in mid-October to ensure great concentration of flavor. It was an ideal finish to a fabulous meal.

Save the date for Rustic Canyon’s next Farmer & Vegetable Dinner Series on Tuesday, June 25. The Weiser Family Farms & Tehachapi Grain Project will feature winter vegetables that have been fermenting for months and beautiful fresh melons, along with heirloom grains from the Tehachapi Grain Project. Tickets are $85 per person.

Rustic Canyon is open Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. and stays open until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. $$ 1119 Wilshire Blvd. (310)393-7050.