Signorello Hope Cuvée BYOB at Beachwalk Cafe, Destin
We celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Henderson Beachwalk Cafe, one of our favorite eateries near The Cove, our vacation rental in Destin (FL).
We’ve featured Scenic Beach Walk Café, Henderson Park Inn, Destin, often in these pages, as excerpted here.
With its idealic views of the Gulf Coast beach and off-shore horizon, and the towers of Destin across Henderson State Beach Park in the distance, it is noted to be one of the best views along the Emerald Coast.
It has been named one of the most romantic restaurants in North America for its pairing imaginative cuisine rooted in the freshest, local ingredients with spectacular sunsets and starry skies amidst the surf.The cuisine is crafted by executive chef, Destin native Daniel Peters. Daniel first worked a professional kitchen at the age of 26, gaining his first taste of fine food and wine knowledge at Chan’s Wine World here in Destin.
In 2011, he moved to Napa Valley to further his culinary skills and experience. There he studied under a number of world-renowned award-winning chefs, including Douglas Keane, Sang Yoon, Jake Rand and Stephan Barber. He returned home to apply what he learned to elevation Destin’s food culture, with his Gulf-to-table concept at Beach Walk.
We’ve written about Beach Walk Café in these pages often as we typically dine there each time we visit the area.
For the starter course I chose their delicious mixed green salad with Mixed Greens, Strawberries, Pecans, Goat Cheese, and their to-die-for Maple Bacon Vinaigrette.
For dinner I ordered from the menu fresh seafood local catch, a regular feature - Snapper with Corn Truffle Risotto, Madeira Mushrooms, Matchstick Truffle Fries, Citrus Beurre Blanc.
Signorello Hope's Cuvee Napa Valley Estate Chardonnay 2010
We discovered and acquired this wine at a winery dinner/visit at the magnificent setting overlooking lower Napa Valley vineyards during our Napa Wine Experience 2013.
I selected this hearty full, forward Chardonnay that I knew would accompany the fish entree as well as the first and second starter and salad courses and I was right.
Our CellarTracker wine inventory records showed we had four different vintages of this label dating back to 2010. Only when we removed the colorful tissue paper packaging from the winery did we know which vintage release we pulled for this special dinner. It turned out to be the oldest vintage, 2010, ideal for proper inventory management, consuming the oldest vintage. .
Previous blogposts of this label note - “Read through my blog postings and you'll know I am predominantly a red wine drinker. While I enjoy an occasional glass of white, most often with appropriate food, I don't normally get excited about a white wine. This Chardonnay was the exception, memorable and special. This was the first bottle from our winery purchase that we have opened at home and it met all my high expectations.”
At fifteen years, this Chardonnay was actually starting to show its age, with a slight fog in the color, a cause for initial concern, but in the end, it was absolutely delicious, but time to drink up. Using a conventional corkscrew, the cork separated on removal, but was otherwise intact. (I’m confident an Ahso two-pronged cork puller would’ve extracted it intact with ease.)
Aside the clarity issue mentioned above, consistent with earlier notes - This Hopes Cuvée Chardonnay was deep golden colored, full bodied, bursting with expressive forward flavorful fruit with layers of peach and poached pear with a sharp flavor sprite almost akin to tangy butterscotch accent giving way to hints of honey, almond, nutmeg, vanilla and creamy soft spicy oak. There is very pleasant full mouth-feel with rich texture on the palate with a long lingering finish of sweet mellow oak. It was a great accompaniment to the carefully prepared, delicious fresh seafood dinner.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1401845
http://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2015/01/signorello-del-dotto-napa-wines-paired.html
http://signorelloestate.com/
