August 25th
Charles Phan Fans
We both love the Slanted Door in San Francisco and Mat loves to cook. This was 100% his pick for our newest Foodie Dinner in the Dining Room in Graton. Two cookbooks, 14 guests, 4 recipes and Paul Mathew wines.
A really great opportunity for our guests to see how versatile our wines are and discover food and wine pairings that might be unexpected.
We poured 4 wines for the evening, starting with the newly released *Brut Rose', 100% Pinot Noir, Methode Champenoise and really quite perfect to start with as well as taste with every course. * 2017 Gewurztraminer, *2014 RRV Pinot and *2016 Cab Franc.
Vietnamese Beef Jerky and Brut Rose' to welcome our guests.
A line up of 4 glasses and a menu greet our guests to the Dining Room.
We started with the Tuna Tartare, everyone loved this version and the winning wine was the Gewurz.
I did expect this outcome for the pairing. We have served our Gewurz with a different recipe of Tuna Ceviche to a very regular standing ovation. Wins every time.
The Brut Rose' was the second favorite wine pairing.
So often in the tasting room customers do NOT want to taste the Gewurz, they think it will be sweet. Our rendition is bone dry, stainless steel fermented and wonderful with so many foods especially Asian flavors.
The second course, jicama and grapefruit salad, one of my favorite dishes at The Slanted Door.
This dish also won the Gewurz as best pairing. This salad has candied pecans and a really wonderful soy based dressing, it really depends on which combination of flavors in each bite to determine the best wine. Of course grapefruit is quite difficult. The Brut Rose' once again came in second place.
Bahn mi sandwich, WOW. I had never had one and we did a sample run a few nights before to see how the bread stood up. Amazing flavors. This one was made with Mama's Meatballs which are incredible on their own. But in the sandwich with pickled carrots, jalepeno's, cilantro and cucumber.
This was the favorite dish of the evening!!!
The Bahn mi favorite wine was hands down the new release 2016 Cab Franc. This wine is so fun to pair with food, it does really well in a lot of difficult food combos. Pinot Noir and Brut Rose' tied for 2nd place.
Bo Luc Lac: Shaking beef up next. A very beefy dish surprised me that the Pinot was the best pairing picked by the majority of the guests.
A lot of great conversation and a little bit more wine. Plus a beautiful serenade from our dear friend Tim Portwood. Once again, full bellies and happy memories were the main results.
