Henderson Beachwalk Cafe Dinner with a view

Henderson Beachwalk Cafe Dinner with a view

Vacationing with Linda’s friends Pat R and Marylou at The Cove, our vacation rental in Destin (FL), we dined at scenic Beach Walk Café, Henderson Park Inn, Destin, 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, arguably one of the best views along the Emerald Coast.

The Beach Walk Café at the Henderson Park Inn is an award-winning, fine-dining restaurant that overlooks the beach with views of the towering condo towers along the Destin beach and harbor two miles to the west. 

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.

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 wrote about Beach Walk Café in these pages last summer. Last time we dined here, the limited but carefully selected wine list offered several favorite producers and selections such as Nils Venge Saddleback, Chardonnay and Cabernet, no less than five of our selection choices were not available. 

So, tonight we brought from our home cellar BYOB our own Venge Vineyards label, their limited release special single vineyard designated Chardonnay. 

With the starter course beet salad with arugula, goat cheese and mandarin orange slices, and the Seared Blue Crab Cakes with Mixed Greens and Jalapeño Horseradish Aioli, we had from the wine list Chandon Sparkling Wine from Napa Valley. The crab cakes were delicious and a favorite of all.

For dinner we ordered from the menu fresh seafood local catches Snapper and Grouper and the Ahi Tuna.

Snapper with Corn Truffle Risotto, Madeira Mushrooms, Matchstick Truffle Fries, Citrus Beurre Blanc

Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna Steak with Fingerling Potatoes, Sautéed Spinach, Ponzu Sauce

Grouper Vince with Pecan Crusted, Crispy Potato Cake, Haricot Verts, Honey Worcestershire Sauce

With the dinner course, we enjoyed from our home cellar, BYOB, one of our favorite full flavored Chardonnays, and ideal pairing with the seafood selections. 

Venge Vineyards Brown Bear Ranch Chardonnay 2018

I featured this label in detail in these pages last spring. This has proven to be one of our favorite and best tasting go-to Chardonnays. At the time I wrote, “I think this bottle is perhaps the best tasting one in our cellar right now, irregardless of the price point”. 

We first tasted this label and I wrote about Venge Vineyards and this limited release label in a these pages earlier, excerpted here back in December 2021 when we served it at a special holiday dinner - Venge Brown Ranch Chardonnay.

Venge Vineyards Brown Ranch Vineyard Los Carneros Napa Valley Chardonnay 2018

As featured, excerpted from earlier blogpost. This is a single vineyard designated label sourced from the 30 acre Brown Ranch Vineyard in Carneros, named for the previous cattle rancher owner Nadine Brown. The vineyard is bordered by HdV’s Hyde Vineyard and Beaulieu’s Vineyard No.9 on Old Sonoma Road in the Carneros district, straddling the rolling hills in the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the nearby San Pablo Bay, combined with the abundant midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing elegant wines that combine power and finesse, with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.

The property, formerly associated with Saintsbury Winery, was purchased in 2012 by the Renterias.

The property was planted with twenty nine acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but most of the vines were afflicted with Eutypa, a fungi disease also known as the Dead-arm Dieback, which causes trunks or arms of the vines to essentially rot and die. Like the famous Dead-Arm Shiraz label from McLaren Vale, Australia, rather than pulling the vines out, the vineyard managers kept the rootstock, cut off the trunk just above the soil and nurtured a bud to grow into a new trunk. Like the Dead-Arm label, focusing all the mature rootstock energy into one vine branch resulted in rich, full, concentrated fruits.

The Brown Ranch’s hillside alluvial soils, with Dijon Clone 76 set into the pre-existing rootstock, produces this rich full round Chardonnay, worthy of the iconic Venge name.Winemaker's notes: The Dijon Clones are modern strains of Chardonnay carefully isolated from grapevine nursery blocks in France. These strains are selected for their incredible ability to produce the best of what the varietal has to offer and therefore have become quite popular with cool climate growers today. The cool and often foggy climate of the Brown Ranch Vineyard, located in central Carneros, Napa, allows for a slow growing season and optimal ripening. This climate aids in the balancing of acidity and lifting tropical aromas in the fruit and thus, in the finished wine. The vines were carefully hand harvested and delivered cool to the winery.

Winemaker's Notes: "This wine is stylish and freshly balanced, featuring a light, pale straw presence in the glass with a bouquet of fresh orange citrus, toasted pine nuts, mild allspice, rocky flints, and toasted oak. Crisp, savory pineapple, sweet delicious apple, savory stone fruit, and ripe pear lead into mouthwatering deliciousness. 

The grapes are blended into used French Oak barrels according to a Burgundian style of winemaking, light handed on the usage of new French Oak keeping it to an average of 45%.

495 Cases were Produced

This release was rated 93 points by Wine Enthusiast and Jeb Dunnuck and 92 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

Golden lemon colored, medium full-bodied, full, round, concentrated, complex opulent fruits with a layer almost bordering on butterscotch, accented by notes of baking spice, hints of lemon, grapefruit, ginger and a touch of peach and almond nut cream, with bright acidity, depth and balance on a full long finish.

RM 93 points. 

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2024/05/pour-boys-gather-for-flw-weekend-and.html

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?3517412

http://www.vengevineyards.com/

https://twitter.com/VengeVineyards

https://www.hendersonparkinn.com/dine/beachwalk-cafe/

Parkers Ocean Grill Wine & Dine - Off Tuesday?

Parkers Ocean Grill Wine & Dine - Off Tuesday?

For the actual date of our anniversary, we went to Parker's Ocean Grill in Downers Grove (Illinois) for dinner. They have an extensive winelist selection from which to pair with the cuisine. We both ordered seafood entrees and selected a Napa Chardonnay as an accompaniment. 

We've been to Parker's several times over the years and never noticed until tonight, and not until exiting the premises, that they have an outdoor patio to the rear of the restaurant. Pity, as we would've far preferred to dine outside on a delightful summer evening, had it been offered, or had we even known that the option existed. 

Perhaps it was due to being a Tuesday evening, or not, but both of our entrees were sub-par, bordering on disappointing. I mention Tuesday, as perhaps their ordering/delivering of fresh fish does not occur at the beginning of the week, such that the selections are less fresh than optimal. I've heard that one never orders Sushi in Tokyo on a Monday, as there is no fresh catch on Sundays to supply the freshest of fish for serving on Monday. Perhaps, we were subject to or victims of this same phenomenon? 

In any event, our dinner's were at the least, uninspiring. 

We both had the Lobster/Crab bisque, which was too salty, and diminimous of meat. 

For entrees, Linda ordered the Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with Avocado, Wakame, Snap Peas, Daikon, Carrot and Ponzu Sauce. The indication it might be less than optimal was its darkish color of the Ahi. 

I ordered the Wood Roasted Copper River Sockeye Salmon with Roasted Corn & Tomato Salsa, Fingerling Potatoes, Lemon Buerre Blanc Sauce and Chive Oil. While probably prepared properly I would've preferred some sprites of the Beuerre Blanc sauce and less of the red peppers, which weren't in the entree description, unless it was the tomatoes influenced by the roasted corn that infused the flavor into the fish. The only essence of the lemon sauce was in the saturated fingerling potatoes, which would've been better without such, not soaked in it. Pity. 

 With our dinner, we ordered a Plumpjack Reserve Napa Valley Chardonnay, as it was what we presumed would be the best or most complementary pairing with the entrees. 

Plumpjack Napa Valley Chardonnay Reserve 2018

Plumpjack was formed from the partnership of current California Governor Gavin Newsom and composer/philanthropist Gordon Getty. Together, they opened the Plumpjack wine store in San Francisco back in 1992. Pretty much everything Newsom has accomplished in his career is due to the benefactor mentor relationship he has with Getty, whose financial fortunes are the legacy of his father, he is the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. 

We discovered Plumpjack back in the earliest days in the mid-nineties, and we hosted a winemaker dinner with then associate winemaker May Pisor at the Meadowwood resort back in the late nineties.

 During that time we acquired early releases of Plumpjack Estate and Reserve wines, many of which we still hold in our cellar today. Over the years, the Plumpjack brand and portfolio has grown exponentially with the acquisition of several more properties and the development of affiliate brands Cade and Odette.

While we regret that the brand has succumbed to the legacy of politician Governor Newsom, we still hold, but tend not to acquire any more of their wines. Never-the-less, tonight we selected a Plumpjack wine, more due to fond memories of visits to the estate and Winery back in those early days, than our current support for their politics of the brand. We did recently visit Plumpjack during our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2018. 

The Winery tasting notes for this label release: "The 2018 PlumpJack Chardonnay is packed with the fresh aromas of Meyer lemon, pomelo, green pear, honeysuckle, and orange blossom with a touch of toast and apple cinnamon. The palate is creamy, silky, and bright, giving the sensations of great weight and vibrant freshness. Our Chardonnay grapes are sourced from two vineyards in the Napa Valley – one in Los Carneros and the other in St. Helena. At just 30 miles apart, Los Carneros can be 10 -15 degrees cooler than St Helena. Due to this difference in temperature along with other differences, such as soil type, these two vineyard sites vary greatly in character and expression but add layers and layers of flavor to the nose and palate."  

This was straw colored, medium bodied, crisp and creamy, clean acidity with notes of lemon, pear, hints of buttery oak and a touch of cinnamon spice. 

RM 90 points. 

https://plumpjackwinery.com/

@PlumpJackWinery

https://parkersamerican.com/

Covid Curve Rebound Wine Dinner

Covid Curve Rebound Wine Dinner

After three months shut in due to Coronavirus, we hosted a wine dinner with neighbors Mark and Shirley and wine buddy fellow 'Pour Boy' Dr Dan and Linda.

Linda prepared grilled Ahi Tuna steaks and filets of beef for the ladies and prime rib-eye steaks for the men, along with a wedge salad with ceasar and blue cheese, a special preparation of potatoes-au-gratin with herbs, and grilled asparagus.

Prior to dinner we served a selection of artisan cheeses and olives - Old Amsterdam Gouda,  Gouda Farmhouse Truffle, Danish Harvarti and Campo de Montalban Spain Mixed Milk.

With the salad and cheese course we served Lansom Rose NV Champagne and a Villa Andretti California Chardonnay 2017. This is the every day collection of Andretti wines sourced partly from the estate, but also blended with grapes sourced from across Northern California.

The cheeses paired perfectly with the Champagne and the modest Chardonnay. The hearty bolder Old Amsterdam, one of my favorites, accompanied the reds as well as the whites.

As we moved to the Ahi Tuna course we opened a Gary Farrell Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.

Gary Farrell "Russian River Selection" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2015

We visited the Gary Farrell estate and winery in the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County during or Napa / Sonoma Wine Experience in 2017.

This was ideal with the grilled marinated Ahi Tuna steak.

This was sourced from vineyards throughout the Russian River Valley, including Hallberg and Galante in the cooler Green Valley AVA. It got 94 points from Wine Enthusiast.

Ruby colored, medium bodied, smooth, nicely balanced, polished, dusty rose with fruits of black berry, black cherries, raspberries, smoky earthy, floral notes with crisp acidity, youthful tannins and oak. 

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2798671

The dinner entree beef course was highlighted by a selection of Bordeaux and Bordeaux varietals starting with a Howell Mountain Napa Cabernet.

Château Clinet Pomerol Bordeaux 2010

Dan brought this Right Bank Bordeaux from his cellar. 

We have had the pleasure of meeting Château Clinet owner Ronan Laborde at the UGCB annual release tour Chicago wine spectacle yearly for the last five years or so. Clinet is one of our favorite Right Bank Bordeaux selections that we hold in our cellar dating back more two decades. 

We've enjoyed this label at several of our special wine events and dinners. A visit to the Chateau was one of the highlights of Ernie's visit to Bordeaux during his trip several years ago. Dr Dan brought this 2010 vintage release as a benchmark wine against which to compare the other labels of the evening. 

The 2010 release was awarded 97 points by James Suckling, 96 points by Jeb Dunnuck and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 95 points by Wine Spectator, 92-94 points by Wine Enthusiast and 93 points by Stephen Tanzer. 

This is what Ronan calls a classic (Right Bank) Bordeaux Blend of 85% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc. 

At ten years of age, this is likely at the apex of its drinking window but will age gracefully for a couple more decades.  A Merlot based blend, this was much more complex and multi-dimensional than the 'narrower' and 'deeper', more single dimensional Cabernets. Hence this was ideal as a transition from the Ahi to the beef steaks, and between the softer, lighter Pinot Noir, but before the bigger, bolder, more single dimensional Cabernets. 

Dark inky purple  colored, full-bodied, concentrated and firmly structured, yet smooth, polished and elegant with layers of dark plum blackberry and black currant fruits accented by coffee bean, mocha, and hints of oak with silky polished tannins on a tongue puckering chewy finish.

RM 94 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1129755

Camiana Blue Hall Vineyards Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

http://www.mcnees.org/winesite/labels/labels_California/lbl-CA-Camiana-Napa-Howell-Mtn-Cab-2004-remc.jpg

From Blue Hall Vineyard,  a 5 acre site on Howell Mountain owned by two medical doctors, Andrew Zolopa & Annie Talbot. Andrew was instrumental in starting the HIV program at Stanford University in 1994 and was a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine for twenty years.

Andrew traveled regularly to Napa to enjoy fine wine and in 1998 purchased property on Howell Mountain to build a home away from home. Sitting near the top of Howell Mountain at an elevation of 1,700 feet above Napa Valley, the property was in the geographic heart of the Howell Mountain sub-appellation, surrounded by world famous vineyards (owned by Beringer) and forested hillsides. 

In 2000-01, Zolopa oversaw the planting of a vineyard divided into two farming blocks by a creek that ran across the property. It was planted by the Pina's a long time Napa family who continued to manage the five acre vineyard of which 3 acres was planted entirely to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Zolopa named the vineyard Blue Hall Vineyard, deriving its name from the famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. In the summer of 1880, while honeymooning in a cabin on the side of Mount St. Helena, Stevenson was inspired by the purity of the blue sky and exclaimed that it was as if he had entered "the blue hall of heaven." The name “Blue Hall” was written about in the book “Silverado Squatters”, written by Robert Louis Stevenson – it featured much about historical Napa Valley.

In 2004, they produced their first wine, a 100% estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon. Andrew named the wine “Camiana" after his daughters Camille and Juliana. They appointed Ted Osborne as winemaker, who was self taught building on experience working at Passing Clouds in Australia, Rupert & Rothschild in South Africa, and Chateau du Seuil in Bordeaux. Coming to America, he put in time working for two well-known Napa wineries, Cakebread and Storybook Mountain, the northern most winery in the Napa Valley. 

Blue Hall’s first vintage was 2004 with only 80 cases made, which they held until after their first commercial release in 2005. While the 2004 was technically their first vintage, it was released after the 2005 as a library wine. 

Their 2004 despite the additional year in the bottle was their “biggest” wine out of their first few vintages. They produced the label annually until 2013, their last vintage produced.

This is one vintage of a vertical collection we acquired with/from fellow wine buddy and 'Pour Boy' Bill C who acquired a case of vintages with son and fellow collector Matt back in 2012. We're still holding four vintages of that collection and this is the oldest release from the selection.

Bill's tasting notes for this vintage release from his Cellartracker post back in 2015 says, "What a treat! Tasted side by side with the 2005 Camiana and we could not tell the difference between the two aside from additional sediment in the '04. Deep garnet in the glass, big black fruit with a touch of sweetness. Silky smooth tannins and a long, lingering finish. Beautiful Howell Mountain product. We were impressed by this small vineyard when we bought some '07 on sale 3 or 4 years ago. The big, bold, fruit forward style convinced us to try some earlier vintages. This was not terribly expensive at $45 a bottle. Great value and the '04 and '05 were absolutely at peak."

wconnolly - 92 Points

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1208115

Andretti Montona Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

In recognition for Mark's career in the auto industry and Dan's long time interest in the Indy 500, I served this Ultra-Premium label from the Mario Andretti winery, named for his birthplace village, Montona. Mario Andretti partners with his auto team sponsor Joe Antonini, former chairman and CEO of KMart, producing wines sourced from the Laird Estate in Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley.

Founded in 1996, their winemaker is Bob Pepi, son of Robert Pepi, founder of Pepi Winery. Ironically, working for these two notable Italians, Pepi is credited with bringing the Italian varietal Sangiovese grape to NapaValley.

We discovered this wine during our visit to the Andretti Winery in Oak Knoll District of southeast Napa Valley during our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2018.  As a result of our visit, we joined their wine club and received allocations of this premium Reserve collection. 

This label was better than earlier tastings suggesting it needed a bit more time to settle and mature in the bottle.  It is sourced from select grapes from the Andretti Winery estate as well as from contract grower sources.

Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, concentrated forward black berry fruits were accented by a layer of dark mocha chocolate with notes of tobacco are spice with mouth filling tannins on a long finish. 

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/barcode.asp?iWine=3159347

After dinner there was a selection of chocolate centric desserts, Linda's flowerless chocolate cake with fresh berries, Shirley's chocolate cheese cake, and Dan and Linda brought a chocolate cake.

The dessert course was highlighted by a mini-horizontal duo of 1996 vintage Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons from Nils Venge Saddleback Vineyards and Winery and Paradigm Oakville.


Nils Venge Saddleback Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

We first met Nils at Del Dotto when he was their winemaker while also managing his Penny Lane Vineyard over at his Saddleback Cellars during our Napa visits in the mid and late nineties.  We discovered and acquired this wine during one of those visits to the Winery.   

Tasting Venge Penny Lane Family Reserve Cabernet w/ AJ
and Nils Venge at Tra Vigne in St Helena

Nils Venge is a bit of a legend in Napa Valley. In addition to having been consulting winemaker to many top producers including Groth, Del Dotto and Plumpjack, he has his Venge and Saddleback family labels, and with son Kirk is coming out with wines from their property Rossini Ranch. He and Kirk worked with Dwayne and Susan Hoff at Fantesca in their early releases. We hear Nils has retired and ownership and the operations is now run by son Kirk.

We met with Nils at the Estate and during our Napa Wine Experience in 2002  (below) which featured Venge Vineyards and Nils and Kirk Venge's Rossini Ranch.

During that visit we had a wine luncheon with Nils Venge back at our then favorite Napa Valley dining establishment, Travigne. Sadly, it has been taken over and re-purposed. The staff moved on to the old Factory Outlet site up near Calistoga where they have opened a winery and eatery, one of the highlights of our Napa Wine Experience 2018. 

We did this same mini-horizontal wine tasting during a holiday dinner back in 2018 when we compared 1996 vintages Cabernet Sauvginon releases of Saddleback opposite a Paradigm Oakville.

At that time we also compared the two Saddleback vintages, the Nils 2006 special release above oppsite the 1996 Saddleback Oakville Napa Cabernet.

At the time, I wrote of the '96, "Initially a bit tight and closed, we decanted and aerated this bottle and it opened a bit more and reveal its native character and fruits over the course of the next hour.'

The two Saddleback wines had remarkable similarity, being potentially the same wine but ten years removed. They showed the same basic profile and character but the '96 showed darker blackish garnet with slight hints of gray color, the same fruit profile albeit slightly subdued, accented by the same notes above of smoke, dusty leather, earth and tea.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=73478

Like that night, tonight we did the same comparison of the '96 Oakville Napa Cab above, we also opened this Paradigm Cabernet from the same appellation and same vintage.

Paradigm Napa Valley Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

Tonight was a replay of that tasting back in 2018', "This provided an interesting comparison with the other '96 Oakville Cabernet sitting side by side. This wine had the same color and body as above. We also decanted and aerated this bottle which accentuated its bouquet and flavors which emerged further after about thirty minutes. The Paradigm showed fewer aromatics and more subdued fruit than the Saddleback above, but opened a bit more over the next hour.'

We tasted and acquired this wine during a winery visit back in 1999. 

 Tonight was a different experience than as reflected in my tasting notes for this label from back in 2009 when I wrote. "This wine is showing its age, probably beyond its apex, or any chance for improvement, but still within the drinking window. Showing some diminution of fruit, giving way to non-fruit charcoal and earth tones, yet, revealed some of its native fruit character at some point during the evening.'

"I opened, decanted and then rebottled and recorked this wine an hour before setting out for the restaurant. Upon decanting it released huge aroma's of berry fruits and some floral. After opening for serving the fruit was a bit muted for almost an hour before revealing black berry and hints of sweet black raspberry, giving way to a layer of charcoal, anise and spice. Tannins were moderate on the lingering finish. This wine is still showing okay but should be consumed over the next few years."

Tonight, this was bright vibrant and fruit filled from the beginning, showing well with great aging potential as it nears its 25th year since release.  A fun and rewarding tasting experience indeed.

http://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2014/08/vintage-napa-reds-vs-bold-barolo.html