Great selection of fine dining in Destin includes Bijoux Restaurant in Sandestin Miramar Beach
We spent a week traveling, visiting the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle getting to know the area and evaluating the real estate market and several properties. During our stay, we dined at four local legendary restaurants. In Destin (FL) we dined at Louisiana Lagniappe, Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House, and The Crab Trap, Destin. We also dined at Bijoux in the Sandestin Resort community. The wide range of fine and casual dining options in one of the key reasons we're considering the Destin area for a vacation or vacation home.
We featured some other wine and dining experiences in recent posts from a trip to the area earlier this month - Kistler Les Noisetiers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay at Emerils Coastal.
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/04/kistler-les-noisetiers-sonoma-coast.html
Bijoux Restaurant Destin/Miramar Beach
Bijoux is one of Destin’s top award-winning restaurants since 2002, offering “coastal cuisine with a New Orleans flair.” Bijoux is a full service fine dining restaurant located in The Market Shops at the entrance of Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach. Its open for dinner seven nights a week which is great since so many restaurants close one or two nights a week, most often on Mondays. They feature fresh Gulf seafood, prime steaks and an extensive award winning wine list.
Bijoux has been selected Best of the Emerald Coast from 2009 through 2018 and the Best French Restaurant by Emerald Coast Magazine.
The restaurant is tucked away in the back behind another more prominent restaurant at the front, so its easy to miss if you're driving by. There is parking in the front or in the rear, beyond the resort security access entry gate.
They offer a spectacular imaginative and well selected wine list with a wide range of favorites and several ultra-premium reserve selections, as well as numerous respectable modest budget selections. Its easy to offer great high priced wines. Its difficult to offer great wines at entry level or lower tier prices. Of course, most often I am focused on finding the best great values with high QPR (Quality Price Ratio) across price points. That is what readers of these pages most often ask about. Bijoux does a great job offering great wines and some good values at all price points.
While most often I'm challenged to find a choice of more than a couple interesting and tempting offerings, Bijoux's wine list offered a dozen such labels. Their wines are priced at about or slightly above the customary 2x retail. Their wine list was awarded the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence award over the last decade.
For a starter we had the imaginative and superbly prepared and presented Blackened Brie with Toasted Walnut Bread Pickled Grapes and Local Honey. It was fabulous.
Normally, I would not order grilled beefsteak when on the coast where fresh seafood is available, but the preparation of this entree coupled with an ideal wine pairing, and the fact we'd have seafood several times this week, I opted for this steak entree, which was fabulous.
Linda had the Grouper Almandine Toasted Almonds, Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette, Creamy Herb Risotto.
For
our wine selection we had one of our favorite labels, a Right Bank
Bordeaux Blend that would be an ideal pairing with my steak as well as
Linda's seafood.
Spring Valley Vineyard “Uriah” Walla Walla 2015
I featured the Spring Valley Wines in detail in this detailed blogpost Spring Valley 2013 Blends - Uriah vs Frederick, and this particular label in a recent blogpost back in February - Uriah Spring Valley Red Blend 2015.
From that February posting - With a dinner of take-out of one of my favorite dishes from local eatery Gia Mia, their Meatballs al Forno, Veal Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and Roasted Tomato Sauce, and some artisan cheeses including Raclette cheese which was featured in our spectacular dinner the other night at 3-Michelin Star Alinea restaurant, that we were eager to try.
For this favored meal combination, for a nice relaxed evening dinner together, I pulled from the cellar one of my favorite drinking Right Bank Bordeaux varietal blends from one of our favorite producers, Spring Valley Vineyards.
We visited Spring Valley during our appellation visit to the Walla Walla (Washington) wine region in the fall of 2018. We visited the Spring Valley Vineyard tasting room in downtown Walla Walla, then ventured out to the vineyards and winery northeast of town. There, we met Dean Derby patriarch, and husband to Shari Corkrum
Derby, grand-daughter of Uriah Corkrum, namesake for this label. Meeting Mr. Derby was one of the highlights of our Walla Walla Wine Experience, especially since he has since passed on. We posted a Tribute to Dean Derby and memorium of that visit - Spring Valley Vineyard toward the end of 2021.
All of the Spring Valley wines are
named for one of the ancestral or current family members.
Spring Valley Vineyard
wines are all produced from 100% estate-grown fruit, a relative rarity in
Washington.
Washington State and regional powerhouse Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates purchased the winery and the brand from the
Derby family recently, but they continue to own and operate the
vineyards.
Spring Valley Vineyards Uriah Red Blend 2015
 |
| The Spring Valley Vineyards adjacent to the farmstead site |
This 2015 release is a blend or Bordeaux varietals, 43% Cabernet Franc, 38% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec. It was aged 18 months in 100% French oak, 40% new.
Winemaker Tasting Notes: “Our most terroir
driven blend, mostly Cabernet Franc and Merlot. A rich wine coming from
one of the warmest harvests. The tannins are velvety and the finish is
long and soft.”
~ Serge Laville, Winemaker.
This was rated 93 Points by Wine & Spirits, 92 Points by James Suckling, 91 Points by Wine Spectator, and 90 points by Sean Sullivan of Wine Advocate.
We hold half dozen vintages of this label and pulled the oldest vintage as part of effective cellar management rotation.
At eight years this is probably at its peak, the apex of its drinking profile, not likely to improve further with aging, but certainly to age gracefully for another decade if you're patient enough to keep it that long.
Bright garnet colored, medium bodied, elegant polished, rich but approachable for pleasant but sophisticated drinking, its right-bank style blend shows vibrant black berry and dark plum fruits with notes of cassis, spice, floral and hints of balsamic and herbs with dusty minerality with polished soft tannins on the lingering finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2648699
Linked referenced in this blog:
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/10/spring-valley-vineyards-tasting-and.html
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2019/11/spring-valley-vineyards-nina-syrah-2017.html
https://www.springvalleyvineyard.com/
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/02/magnificent-dinner-at-alinea-kitchen.html
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/04/kistler-les-noisetiers-sonoma-coast.html
