Vie Restaurant Western Springs Restaurant Week Price Fixe Dinner

Vie Restaurant Western Springs Restaurant Week Price Fixe Dinner w/ Wine Flight

For the annual Restaurant Week Chicago, participating restaurants offer special price fixe dinners to introduce patrons to their venue and cuisine. Typically, these offer great value dining opportunities and sell out very quickly. Once again, we dined at Vie Restaurant in nearby Western Springs and invited Dr Dan and Linda to experience one of our west suburban dining gems.

We also took advantage of their wine accompanying tasting menu.

This was a bit of a fluke since while reviewing the menu and pairings, Dan notice Bacchus as the wine selection for the entree course. Having a collection and being a big fan of Phelps Bachus, he jumped on the choice and we all followed.

Naturally this was most likely a coincidental sleight of convenient confusion between two labels of similar name. Of course the ultra-premium Bachus would not be featured by the glass, let alone at the price fixe pricepoint. Probably innocence rather than deception since only but a few would likely consider this to be an option. Never-the-less, we didn't consider the variation and jumped on the feature offering.

Vie's Restaurant Week Menu

FIRST
celery root and apple crostada, crispy chicken skin, smoked apple butter
or
kielbasa, sauerkraut, sweet and sour turnips, mustard

SECOND
sweet potato soup, pickled cherry bomb peppers, chicharrons, crème fraiche - this was incredible - tasty, nicely presented and amazing in the unique cherry bomb peppers that exploded on the palate with tiny bursts of spicy heat, almost to vanish as quickly so as not to be offending in any way. 
or
roasted beets, gorgonzola, marmalade vinaigrette, grilled greens, sunflower seeds

THIRD
cdk beef combination: wood-grilled sirloin and shaved italian beef, fried giardiniera, smashed potatoes, kale, grilled onions, “juice” - interesting combination, novel, but not something I would choose for an elegant dinner entree
or
catfish piccata, brown butter basmati rice, roasted carrots, pickled asparagus, meyer lemon, capers

FOURTH

dark chocolate mousse cake, sour cherry compote, whipped white chocolate

or

pear caramel hand pie, blonde chocolate ice cream

The wine flight was carefully selected to complement each course. Each was a lesser wine that we would not normally order or hold in our cellar, yet each held up to the occasion, thereby offering substantial QPR - quality price ratio value, with each selection.

Michael Pozzan Winery Dante California Noir 2015

Michael Pozzan's Dante Pinot Noir, named after his eldest son, Michael Dante Pozzan, and inspired by wines discovered during travels through Italy, presents a selection one might find in the neighborhood trattoria. A unique but interesting and appropriate selection both options of the First Course. 

The 2015 Dante Pinot Noir is medium light bodied, with light opaque burgundy and light purple tones in color. Aromas and flavors of fresh raspberries and rose petals, give way to tones of vanilla and lightly roasted coffee with hints of sweet spicy oak and vanilla bean throughout the finish.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2586300

For the second course soup ..

Château de Respide Graves Blanc Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend 2014

Light straw color with a greenish hue, light medium bodied, slightly green grass and soapy tones accented by wet stone, floral, mineral with sweet pink grapefruit citrus, peach and honey notes with bright but modest light acidity.

RM 85 points.

This is a lovely wine: made from 66% Sémillon and 34% Sauvignon.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2132105




the other middle course wine .....

 Di Giovanna Nerello Mascalese Sicilian Rosato Gerbino

This is a unique Rosato from Sicily made from the Sicilian Nerello Mascalese grape known for expressive aromatics and spice. Aurelio Di Giovanna sourced the fruit from a 100 year old vineyard in Noto in Eastern Sicily where the vine has it’s origins.

The Di Giovanna family has been cultivating their 56 hectares of vineyards for five generations just outside the town of Sambuca di Sicilia in western Sicily. Their wines are made exclusively with their estate fruit with the grapes for this label coming from their Miccina & Paradiso vineyards.

This Rosato di Nerello Mascalese is light medium bodied, soft round textured, rhubarb colored, with bing cherry and red currant fruits with notes of floral violets and mineral on the moderate finish.


RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2110622

For the main entree course ...

Bacchus Cellars California Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

Not to be confused with that other ultra-premium Bachus label, this label is from David Gordon, the wine director at the legendary trendy Tribeca Grill New York City restaurant. Owned by restaurateur Drew Nieporent and actor Robert DeNiro, Tribeca Grill features a highly regarded wine program with a list of over 1800 selections. It is one of only six Wine Spectator Grand Award winner wine lists in New York City.

David created this Bacchus label sourced from many producer contacts he has in Napa and Sonoma. While the wineries that are currently used wish to remain anonymous, producers such as Caymus, Lewis Cellars and Miner Family have provided grapes and helped with the winemaking for earlier cuvees. The result is an incredible high value QPR (quality price ratio) wine at a modest price point.

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, bright and approachable, with balanced flavors of black plum and black currant fruits, tones of cassis, mocha and a touch of earth and cedar, finishing with moderate tannins and oak.

RM 87 points.

 https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2574676

 The Dessert Course accompaniment ..

Warre's Heritage Ruby NV Port

A nice easy casual sipping accompaniment to the dessert

Signorello & Del Dotto Napa Wines Paired with Vie Western Springs Fine Cuisine

Vie in Western Springs Locavor Fine Cuisine Matched with BYOB Signorello & Del Dotto Napa Wines

We dined at tony Vie in Western Springs at their Chicago Restaurant Week four course price fixe special evening with daughter Erin and S-in-law Johnnie, arranged by son Ryan.

They offered a meat and a fish entree selection so I took two special Napa bottles BYOB - Del Dotto Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 - a special year for the kids, and Signorello Estate Napa Valley Hope's Cuvee Chardonnay 2010.

A wine course and or beer accompaniment course was offered but we took advantage of and appreciated Vie's corkage fee/accommodation. 

The wines were a highlight of the localvor fine dinner course pairings shown below.

First Course

Chicken cassoule: braised leg, sausage and chicken bacon, white beans, roasted turnips, preserved asparagus, tarragon pesto,

or,

Tempura fried pickled summer beans, roasted sweet potatoes, harissa mayonnaise, arugula (shown left). Imaginative and tasty.

Second Course

Creamy squash soup, ginger granola, yogurt,

or,

Roasted and pickled beets, watermelon radish, savoy cabbage, smoked ramp and buttermilk ranch (shown right).This was delicious but, while ever so subtle and refined, the smoked tone in this course, when followed by the smoked entree, in combination was a bit much.

Third Course

Pan-roasted steelhead trout, sauerkraut pancake, parsnip puree, wood grilled onions, smoked apple butter vinagrette, dill (shown left). The girls both had this and enjoyed it.

or,

Wood grilled pork sausage, smoked ham, toasted polenta, confit celery root, grilled meyer lemon, marcoot creamery tomme, preserved tomato pork broth. Johnnie and I both had this and while it was good, the smoked ham overpowered the tasty pork sausage.

Also, the double smoked selection of the smoked entree following the smoked beet salad was a but much.







The wines:

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.

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.

This Hopes Cuvée Chardonnay was full bodied but nicely balanced and polished for very pleasant drinking. It is bursting with flavorful fruit with layers of peach and poached pear 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, complex fine cuisine courses.

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1401845

While it wasn't listed on the Vie website when I planned and selected the wines for the evening, their wine list featured the Signorello flagship Padrone Napa Cabernet. It would have been fun to have a Signorello wine flight for our dinner experience. We'll plan this for a future visit. Padrone is Signorello's flagship wine, produced in honor of Ray Signorello Sr., the patriarch of the family and founder of the estate.

http://signorelloestate.com/ 


Del Dotto Vineyards Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

We have a vertical collection of this wine dating back to the inaugural vintage release in 1993. Del Dotto is one of our favorite Napa producers and we've visited the winery many times over the years. A tour of the sensational Del Dotto winery and cave was a highlight of Erin and Johnnie's Napa trip. So, it was fitting to select a Del Dotto for our dinner together. The 1999 vintage commemorates a special benchmark year for the kids too.

This 1999 vintage was the artwork of legendary winemaker Nils Venge crafted from Rutherford appellation fruit. At sixteen years, this is a testament to the aging potential of this label as it is still full, firm and vibrant and is just starting to show its age as tones of earth, leather, and tobacco are starting to set in. These tones turned to bright floral notes after being open an hour.

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, firm gripping forward black berry fruits laced with that classic Rutherford dust, complex but nicely balanced with intense dark cherry, black currant and blackberry fruits, a layer of cedar and spicy tangy oak on a lingering finish of tight structured tannins. This was a great complement to the complex mix of tastes in the wood grilled pork sausage and smoked ham entree that matched well with the wine's complexity.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=616988

http://www.deldottovineyards.com/

After dinner, the Fourth Course dinner selections were:

Mascarpone cheesecake, spiced cookie butter, heirloom citrus, and tangerine sorbet, or,

Apple and raspberry galette, milk chocolate gelato, and raspberry preserves (shown right). This was spectacular.

Vie Restaurant, Western Springs, IL
http://www.vierestaurant.com/