The "Wine Expert"

555 is the street address and name of a prestigious Portland restaurant that I had the pleasure to enjoy recently. Located on Congress Street in a very unassuming building, the dark, swanky atmosphere surrounded us as we were led upstairs to a commanding table overlooking the interior balcony setting that reminded me of an inner city vista, gazing down on a the diners below. The occaision was the 37th Anniversary of some very dear friends of ours and they asked us to join in their celebration: a party of ten vibrant old married souls.
The evening was perfect in that the company was talkative, attentive and lively. The food was near perfect and the wine list was seductively broad and adventurous. But before I get ahead of myself we all started with a cocktail...which meant all of the men selected a single malt scotch (and one of the wives indulged as well). To our delight, we had each chosen a different scotch without discussing our choices out loud. For me, Oban has been my scotch of choice when money is no object; Johnnie Walker black suffices in the interim.
While we were pondering our dinner choices I was asked to make the wine selection for the table. My gracious host asked for one bottle of red and one bottle of white. I was in a social dilemna. First of all, it is a lot of pressure to be asked to make a group selection, especially with people you don't see often. Secondly, since I am always conscious of the food pairings, how can you possibly choose only two wines that will match ten dinner plates? And then there are the other issues: how much does the host want to spend? will two bottles suffice with this crowd of tipsters?
I pored over the wine list and found it to be on the outside of ordinary. I was able to recognize many of the labels and I found a deep selection of grape varieties beyond the run of the mill ChardonnayMerlotCabernetPinotNoirSauvignonBlanc.
After a good fifteen minutes (remember we were talking and drinking scotch, two of my favorite pastimes) I asked everyone to tell me what they were planning to order for dinner. Only one person was eating beef. All others were having either pork tenderloin or some sort of seafood. Relief. I decided on the spot to order a light french style pinot noir and a chardonnay (after one woman told me her favorite wine was Yellow tail chardonnay....ugggggh) I decided on a Perrin et fils La Gigondas cotes du rhone and a chilean Casa Lapostolle Chardonnay; both were forty two dollars but I knew they were only twice the retail price whereas I saw several wines that were marked up triple the suggested retail.
I guess if I have one advantage as the wine selector, I know what the retail price markup is!
The wines were a hit, and I have to say I was relieved to hear people enjoy my selections. We ended up getting a second bottle of the Perrin, a delicate red that developed a soft rounded character as it lay opened on the table. The Casa Lapostolle chardonnay was balanced, with some deep wooden undertones that served to slice through the sauces and butter that came with the seafood dishes. I should tell you that the Casa Lapostolle family is related directly to the Marnier family in France, the same family that makes the exquisite orange liquer Grand Marnier. Last year, Wine spectator awarded them the honor of being the vineyard of the year.
In retrospect, I enjoyed being the "wine expert", but it is very nerve racking. I didn't want to impress people with my knowledge, I just wanted to pick some wine that everyone would enjoy. In the end, it was my knowledge of what wines would pair well with certain foods that won the day. Had I chosen a Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine would have bowled over all of the food save the beef; and had I chosen a Pinot Grigio, the heavy sauces that came with the seafood dishes would have buried the light grape.
Practice does make perfect, and I urge you all to explore food and wine pairings. It will make for a much more enjoyable evening out.

A touch of Wine Snobbery

It was Mother's Day, after all, and I really wanted to make something special for Rhonda, so you will forgive my indulgence in an opulent choice of wine pairing.
But reader, let me tell you, this wine was a perfect pairing like Streisand with Redford, or Tracey with Hepburn. Let me rewind a bit and give you the menu breakdown so you can appreciate what I am talking about.
I worked Sunday from 6am until 1pm and from there I would go home and offer to cook dinner for Rhonda at any time she would prefer. Normally, she is an early eater and it was quite possible that she would ask for Sunday dinner @ 4pm, but today she was willing to eat between 5 and 6pm. Now I had already purchased everything I would need on Thursday, so I relaxed until 3:30pm when I finally jumped into action in the kitchen.
I prepared a salad which I have dubbed "Salad Rhondalaise" a romaine based light salad of Feta, pecans, craisins, with a touch of mushroom and cherry tomato with a splash of Balsamic Vinaigrette. This sweet and nutty intro was followed by the main course: Pan-seared Pork medaillions with Dijon mustard cream sauce supported by Red skinned mashed potatoes and fresh steamed green beans and soft rolls.
Talk about a classic French country meal, I was actually excited making the cream sauce and testing it out with pieces of pork (and so was my son, David)
Now to the good stuff. I had thought this out a week before, believe it or not, and decided to go with the French theme I had kind of come upon with the menu. I really wanted a red Burgundy and one that would shine with this kind of meal. I selected Joseph Drouhin's Gevrey-Chambertin. That's just a fancy way of saying: "I selected a French Pinot Noir that retails for about $44.00".
With Burgundy wine you will either drink white, which is solely Chardonnay, or red, which is solely Pinot Noir. But with few exceptions, you will not see the words Chardonnay or Pinot Noir printed on the label; instead, you will find the name of the village in the Burgundy region from which the wine was grown. With these particular wines I had the pleasure of attending a wine luncheon with Laurent Drouhin from the Joseph Drouhin family (you see why I called this post wine snobbery?) During this lunch we opened with the LaForet red, their basic table version of Pinot Noir and then followed it up with Chorey-les-Beaune, a twenty-three dollar Pinot and finished a rack of lamb with the Gevrey-Chambertin.
So I knew which one would pair well with the pork and deliver the knock-out punch for Mother's Day.
The Gevrey-Chambertin starts out with a strong, wooden feel on the tongue and then finishes with bright vibrant, almost too intense fruit. All of this is going on in a wine that is still quite delicate and light to the mouth. This created a devastating attack upon the pork entree and made the meat come alive. Again, Rhonda rose to the occaision and sampled the red although I held a Chilean Chardonnay in reserve, but she agreed that the Pinot Noir was delicious and she enjoyed the red grape with her dinner.
Dinner was a success and I logged it on my computer as a menu to save for future use.
If anything, I felt very confident in making the correct wine choice for a special dinner and to be able to do that for the love of your life is something worth noting. I hope you all try to find the "perfect pair" of food and wine and enjoy what a complete dining experience is all about.

...Like chilled butterscotch

Tonight, my wife and I shared a bottle of Rutherford Ranch Chardonnay with dinner and the result was better than the day I sampled this Napa chard at the Nappi Distributors wine show. Dinner was a simple, flavorful affair of broiled scallops, lightly seasoned and swimming in fresh lemon and butter. Add a side of steamed brocolli and cauliflower along with some rice pilaf and you have a healthy, tasty dinner. The Rutherford Chardonnay simply tipped the scales. Like most of us, I served the Chardonnay straight from the fridge, overchilled, but I gotta tell ya, with this wine it was dynamite. From start to finish, this wine attacked my taste buds and its oaken background created a creamy mouthful that combined with the sweet fruit to create the sensation of chilled butterscotch. And all of that flavor for only 12.99??? This wine is a steal and it paired so well with dinner. My wife approved of its taste so well that she poured a second glass ( a rare occurence and surely a sign of its value!!!)
Truth be told, Rhonda had discovered this bottle at the Nappi show and was anxious to show it off to Lynne and myself. I had to concur with her gut instinct that this was a special wine regardless of the price...but the pricepoint was a nice feature. It was nice to be able to put it to the dinner test a few weeks later and confirm what our taste buds had told us back then...this wine is awesome.
You would have to spend 25.00 or more to get more out of wine than this!