Oak Restaurant Charleston for spectacular dinner experience
The annual OTBN Wine Extravaganza Weekend this year finds our Pour Boys Wine Group fragmented with folks traveling, so we set a raincheck for a future get-together.
Meanwhile, we traveled to Charleston (SC) for an abbreviated OTBN get together with fellow wine buddy & Pour Boy Bill C, and Beth.
Friday night we dined at Oak Restaurant on historic Broad Street in downtown Charleston for a fabulous wine dinner.
Oak operates eight locations across the southeast from Alexandria to Nashville to Jacksonville with points in-between including Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte and in the historic downtown Charleston.
Located in a historic bank building that dates back to 1848 with brick walls, arched windows, 20-foot ceilings, original metalwork, fireplaces, and 150-year-old heart pine floors. There are four distinct dining areas and the bar, with second and third floor private dining rooms. The atmosphere is lively, cosmopolitan, tony, stylish, warm and inviting.
The menu is classic steakhouse featuring Certified Angus Beef with all the trimmings, locally and regionally sourced seafood and produce, and special selections of oysters, caviar and specialties including a daily seafood fresh catch, pasta, chicken, scallops and crab cakes.
There is a broad, extensive wine list features primarily American California Cabernets but also includes some Old World selections of French, Italian and a few select labels beyond.
We were served by Chris Bartlett who was an absolute pro, hospitable, cordial, delightful - a second tier Sommelier, he was masterful in serving our wines as well.
For starters, Bill and I both ordered the Foie Gras, and for the group, the baked oysters and the shrimp cocktail plate.
With the foie gras was served Dolce Napa Valley Late Harvest Riesling 2017 for a perfect, delicious pairing.
For the main course we ordered Filets of Beef steaks, and Linda ordered the daily fresh catch, Tile Fish with coos coos and corn relish, all with sides of onion rings, pomme purée’, and Oak’s signature cornbread.
My filet of beef steak was prepared perfectly, to my specified Pittsburg style, and, along with the delicious mashed potatoes was as good as any such pairing I have ever had!
Crazy as it may sound, aside the fabulous steak, the foie gras and all … the delicious mashed potatoes were spectacular and one of the highlights for me.
For a wine accompaniment Bill brought BYOB from his home cellar an aged vintage Chateau Montelena Napa Cabernet. I ordered from the wine list the rare boutique producer Mira Napa Cabernet.
I selected the Mira, based on a tasting experience with this producer at a family dinner last year. Notably, we learned one of the Mira founders/owners was from Charleston and that for nearly seven years, they actually had a tasting room featuring all of their vineyard designated wines a few blocks away down the street.
Mira Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
This is the handicraft of Co-Founder/Winemaker Gustavo A. Gonzalez and co-founder Jim “Bear” Dyke, Jr., consultant and Washington DC lobbyist who over his 30-year career, has consulted with Fortune ranked companies, trade associations, public policy makers and helped manage numerous national and state political campaigns.
A chance meeting at the Off The Record bar in Washington, D.C., lead to their joint pursuit of the dream of creating a world class winery. In 2009, they joined forces and sourced their first grapes in 2012 with the inaugural release of Mira wine.
Ironically, we learned Jim “Bear” Dyke and Mira Winery had a connection to Charleston and for a while had a tasting room just down the street from Oak. The Charleston connection with Jim and wife Dawn Dyke, and Mira’s history were featured in the April 2017's issue of the
Charleston Mercury, where he shared his story of meeting Gustavo Gonzalez and how he put aside the world of politics to pursue his dream, leading to the formation of Mira Winery. The full article can be found here -
Click to read article.
Duke and Gonzales were joined by Ed Thralls who came to Mira with 25 years of experience in both wine and financial technology industries. Having studied winemaking at UC Davis and earning a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), he has served as director at Flowers Vineyards & Winery and Huneeus Vintners and managing his own winery, Thralls Family Cellars.
Today, starting with the 2023 vintage, Mira’s winemaker is the highly acclaimed Thomas Rivers Brown, the youngest winemaker to ever receive a 100 point score from Robert Parker (he’s earned 60+ since) and has also received two 100-point scores from Wine Spectator, the first American winemaker to receive a perfect score.
Mira Winery is named for the Latin root of “miracle” and Greek for “destiny”. It is a family owned, 16-acre estate in the heart of the Napa Valley, farming historic vineyards that were first planted to grapes in 1885.
Gustavo A Gonzalez has been practicing his craft in the Napa Valley and around the world to critical acclaim for over 20 years, in California, Italy, France, Argentina, and Brazil. He brings local knowledge and global perspective, experience and creativity to Mira’s vineyard practices and winemaking techniques.
Gustavo grew up in California’s Central Valley, surrounded by family with longstanding ties to agriculture and an appreciation for wine. His appreciation for winemaking took him to the Napa Valley where he joined the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1995 working in the fields towards a career in winemaking. For 17 years at Robert Mondavi Winery, Gustavo worked his way up to Head Red Winemaker where he established Robert Mondavi Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon as one of the leading Napa Valley Cabernets, consistently receiving Wine Spectator ratings of 95 or higher.
Gustavo’s strong relationships with leading Napa Valley grape growers brought Mira unique access to some of the finest blocks of grapes in some of the Napa Valley’s premier vineyards including Hyde Vineyard in the Carneros AVA and Schweizer Vineyard in the heart of the Stags Leap AVA.
Winemaker’s notes - “ A seductive nose with notes of vanilla and warm spice. Reduced tannins and enhanced acidity allows for a lovely smooth, consistent experience with luscious balsamic flavors.”
Dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied, full round concentrated ripe black cherry and blackberry with notes of dusty rose, black tea, hints of vanilla, oak and cinnamon spice with smooth moderate tannings on the lingering finish.
RM 91 points.
Chateau Montelena Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
One cannot write about Chateau Montelena wine without talking about its history. This is the classic flagship label from this legendary producer Chateau Montelena who gained international acclaim for not only the winery, but for Napa Valley and the US wine industry with the monumental and historic ‘Judgement of Paris wine tasting event’. That tasting event was chronicled in Time Magazine in the June 1976 issue.
This 2004 release was the first year that "Calistoga" appeared on the front label, along with Napa Valley. Montelena proprietor Bo Barrett initially proposed AVA status for Calistoga to the US, but it wasn't officially granted until 2009.
We visited the historic Chateau up in the north end of Napa Valley back in the early nineties, before I was blogging and writing about such activities.
We had fun with the famous event with a wine dinner featuring wines from the historic tasting, featured in these pages - Dinner Features Judgement of Paris Wines - Dinner Features Judgement of Paris Wines to Commemorate the Tasting event's Anniversary Tonight, this was a fabulous pairing with the perfectly prepared beefsteak dinner.
This release was sourced mostly from the Chateau Montelena estate Game Farm Vineyard in Oakville.
Winemaker Notes for the 2007 vintage release - “When you talk about vintages at Montelena, they are often categorized as "hot" or "cool." Then occasionally there are years like 2007 which, because of their ideal conditions, earn the tag of "Goldilocks" because everything was just right. Warm spring conditions led to earlier than normal bud break, while the moderate temperatures in summer and early fall further extended the growing season, resulting in long, slow ripening with fantastic flavor development and near-perfect juice chemistries.”
This release was rated 94 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, and 92 by both James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast.
Wine Enthusiast in awarding this a Cellar Selection wrote “Not a wine for drinking now or anytime soon,’ citing its ‘hard tannins that lock down the palate.’ Parker wrote “requires 4-5 years of cellaring. That in itself is atypical of this exuberant, flamboyant vintage. Given this cuvee’s past history, this 2007 should age for 30+ years.”
At going on fifteen years, this wine is likely just now entering the apex of its drinking window, and may improve further over the next decade, and certainly provide enjoyable drinking beyond that.
Dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied, dense, firm concentrated backbone frames the bright blackberry and black currant fruits accented by spice, black tea, crème de cassis and clove spice, with hints of dark mocha and that classic Mayacamas eucalyptus, finishing with firm ‘powerful’ yet refined tannins on the lingering finish.
RM 92 points.
Just under 10,000 cases were produced.
Some, especially this crowd, would argue such a dinner is not complete without dessert. We finished with a delectable too many layers to count chocolate cake!
A spectacular memorable evening with great friends food and wine.
The label, ‘capsule’, and most importantly, the fill level and cork were pristine, showing now signs of diminution whatsoever. I put capsule in quotes because their unique packaging features a wax ‘cap’ on the top of the cork, (shown left), rather than a traditional capsule, or the annoying dipped wax collar on the top of the entire neck of the bottle, which while looking dramatic is a pain to remove. 
