RN74 Chef's Tasting Dinner and Wine Pairing

RN74 Chef's Tasting Dinner and Wine Pairing

We visited Seattle for a Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour. On our first night, we dined at RN74 Modern French Bistro where we chose the five course pric fixe Chef's Tasting Menu with Wine Pairings. RN74 offers two wine pairing flights, a premier flight and a premium 'grande' selection. We chose both so we could sample two flights of wines against the food courses.

RN74 -Wine - No-Wine

RN74 Seattle features global interpretations of American and French cuisine with an extensive wine list highlighting the Burgundy region of France, along with boutique wine producers from Washington and Oregon. Locally-sourced, seasonal highlights include house-aged steaks, vegetables from local organic farms and pristine Puget Sound seafood.

RN74 offers an impressive extraordinary 89 page wine list that is wide and deep with international selections from all major regions.  The list offered a broad selection of Washington and Oregon wines but was equally impressive in Bordeaux, Burgundy, California and beyond. There's also a extraordinary selection of half bottles and large format bottles. The Burgundy selection was the most extensive I've ever seen with the widest selection from each appellation, many top producers and a deep vertical collection across vintages.

RN74 Somm Table - tending to each selection

RN74 is one of thirty restaurants run by San Francisco-based Mina Group, a restaurant management company specializing in creating and operating upscale, innovative restaurant concepts, led by Founder and award-winning Chef Michael Mina, operating since 2003. Mina Group restaurants are in many major metros and destination cities from California to Florida and WDC including Chicago, Scottsdale, Boston, Hawaii and internationally in Dubai.

Renowned Chef Michael Mina sets the standards for creative food dishes and service delivery for an extraordinary culinary experience. I admit I have never heard of the group or their restaurants but was sufficiently impressed that I'll seek them out with every opportunity. 

For our wine pairings, I believe the differential between the premium and the more expensive grande selections were negligible. In fact for the first three courses, we preferred the more modest selection. Only with the last flight was the Sauterne a resounding upgrade from the second wine. All but the most discriminating might be well served to follow the more economical route. Of course, best is to try both and compare!

The Chef;s Tasting Menu with wine pairings:

RN74 Chef’s Tasting Menu

Chilled English Pea Veloute – Crispy Leeks, jamon de coppa, wild mushroom crème fraiche

Hiedler, Gruner Veltliner Loess, Kamptal, AT 2015
Domaine Pinson, Chardonnay, Chablis, Burgundy, FR 2016

                

Heirloom Tomato Salad – Crenshaw melon, French feta, watermelon gelee, grapefruit, basil

               Chateau Gassier, Grenache Blend Rose’, Cote du Provence, FR 2017
               Beckham Estate, Olivia’s Pinot Noir Rose’, Chehalem Mountains, OR 2017

Sweet Corn Agnolotti – smoked duck breast, puffed forbidden rice, parmesan-porcini brood

               Clusel Roch, Gamay, ‘Traboules’, Coteaux du Lyonais, Rhone, FR 2016
               Domaine de la Cote, Pinot Noir, ‘Estate’, Sta. Rita Hills, CA 2014

Grilled NY Strip – Japanese eggplant, smoked cauliflower, foraged mushrooms, cherry gelee

               WT Vintners, Syrah, ‘Destiny Ridge’, Horse Heaven Hills, WA 2015
               Domaine Lombard, Syrah, Brezeme, Northern Rhone Valley, FR 2014

Coconut Panna Cotta – Farmers market fruit, mango gelee’, raspberry sorbet

               Renardat-Fache, Cerdon de Bugey, Savoie, FR, 2016
               Chateau Roumieu-Lacoste, Sauternes, Bordeaux, FR 2015

              

 

 Our courses:

 

 Chilled English Pea Veloute – Crispy Leeks, jamon de coppa, wild mushroom crème fraiche

 

Heirloom Tomato Salad – Crenshaw melon, French feta, watermelon gelee, grapefruit, basil

           

Sweet Corn Agnolotti – smoked duck breast, puffed forbidden rice, parmesan-porcini brood

 

Grilled NY Strip – Japanese eggplant, smoked cauliflower, foraged mushrooms, cherry gelee

 

Coconut Panna Cotta – Farmers market fruit, mango gelee’, raspberry sorbet

Are those all mine?
Somm table upper right

REDD Napa Valley Wine Pairing Tasting Dinner

REDD Napa Valley Wine Pairing Tasting Dinner

We dined at REDD in Yountville and had their Pric Fixe tasting dinner with wine pairing. While there
were six courses with six different wines, they prepared a different course with different wine pairings so we go to sample twice as many pairing selections!

REDD is the project of chef Richard Reddington, formerly of Masa’s and Jardiniere in San Francisco, and Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley. His dishes feature an what he calls 'wine country cuisine' with influences from Asia, Europe, and Mexico. The atmosphere is contemporary elegant yet casual and relaxing, unpretentious for such sophisticated and serious cuisine. REDD is on Washington Street the main street in Yountville with an outdoor court, bar, the dining room and a semi-private dining room.



Our entree courses are pictured below:

Tuna Tartare

Sishimi Hemachi

Diver Scallops

Duck Confit

Alaskan Halibut

Pork Belly

NY Strip Steak

Lamb

http://reddnapavalley.com/

Italian Village Chicago Wine Dinner

Italian Village Chicago Wine Dinner

For our team bootcamp gathering in Chicago, I arranged a wine dinner at legendary Italian Village nearby in the center of Chicago's Loop. Wine Director Jared Gelband, and Liz Ramirez, Event Director, arranged for a price fixe dinner with a selection of five wines, two reds and two whites plus a dessert wine, matched accordingly to entree choices and the courses.

Third generation Gina Capitanini
and Jared Gelband Wine Director

As I've written in these pages, Italian Village is Chicago's classic oldest Italian Restaurant, continuously operated by the Capitanini family since 1927, now in its 90th year, with the largest wine cellar in the Midwest that holds over 45,000 bottles.

There are actually three restaurants on premise, each with their own kitchen, chef and waitstaff, all served by the Wine Spectator Best of Award Wine Cellar/Wine List with over 1200 selections. The vast collection, mostly Italian, also features French, American and other regions, with many vintage releases, still at vintage prices for some extraordinary values.

On the day of our dinner, The Wall Street Journal featured Italian Village in their "7 Insider Wine Bars That Sommeliers Belly Up To". 'Lettie Teague asked seven sommeliers in seven cities where they like to drink on their days off. Follow their lead to the best under-the-radar wine bars, deepest cellars, most daring lists and savviest crowds to drink with across the country."

 We dined in the lower level, La Cantina Enoteca, in one of the numerous private dining rooms in the three restaurants on the property, one perfectly suited for our group of twenty.

After soup/salad course, the dinner entree choices were:

Chicken Piccata
Sauteed chicken breast with lemon capers in white wine butter sauce. 

Veal Marsala
Veal medallions sauteed in Marsala wine with fresh mushrooms. 

Three Cheese Tortelli
Pillow shaped pasta filled with Mascarpone, Mozzarella and Ricotta cheeses in a cherry tomato-garlic-basil broth. 

Salmon Puttanesca
Broiled Atlantic salmon topped with olives, capers, tomato, garlic, basil and white wine.

The accompanying wine selections were:

Castella di Farnetella, Chianti Colli Senesi, DOCG 2014

Paitin di Pasquero-Elia, "Elisa" Rosero Arnies, DOC 2015

Maculan, "Brentino," IGT (Cabernet/Merlot) 2014

Piazzo, Chardonnay, DOC 2015

And with the dessert course, Jared served
Maculan, "Dindarello," Moscato IGT, Veneto

Throughout the evening, small groups were taken on tours of the extraordinary wine cellar featuring over ten thousand bottles on the premises from 1200 different labels.

Maitre-d Hans presided and Mark served our group with superior service in an extraordinary setting for an ideal evening of wine, food, team building collaboration and commraderie.

Vin Chicago Rombauer Wine Dinner at Adelle's Wheaton

Vin Chicago Hosts Rombauer Vineyards Wine Dinner at Adelle's Restaurant, Wheaton

Vin Chicago hosted a wine dinner at Adelle's Restaurant in nearby Wheaton, featuring Napa Valley Rombauer Vineyards' California Wines.

Six Rombauer wines complemented the five dinner courses crafted and presented by Adelle's Chef John Anderson and owner Debbie Fitzgerald Williams. On hand to present Rombauer wines was Clyde Gilbert, Rombauer National Sales Manager and Mike Baker and Kathleen from Vin Chicago, Naperville. Besides being manager of the Naperville store, Mike is also a lead buyer for Vin Chicago and is also an Advanced Sommelier in the Court of Master Sommeliers.

We'll look forward to picking up our Rombauer order, and visiting Adelle's Restaurant again, especially on Corkage Fee free Tuesdays!

The dinner and wine paring flight:

Rombauer Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015 

 Served with passed canapes, parmesan gougeres, chilled red bliss potatoes, creme fraiche, chives, accented by caviar, and honeydew melon ball skewer. See comments of the tasting course pairing with the Chardonnay below. I wonder if the pairing detracted from the tasting score.

This is the second release of a Rombauer Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. Their 2014 inaugural release was their first new nationally-released white wine from Rombauer since they launched their Chardonnay in 1982, and the first new varietal introduced since their Zinfandel in 1990.

They spent five years seeking out top-quality Sauvignon Blanc vineyards across Napa Valley to source the fruit for this label and they kept production low in the 2014 release to ensure they would meet their quality standards. 

Based on the success and response to the initial release, they increased production in this, their second vintage, 2015, to expand into select markets. Still, this Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc remains a limited release wine. This expands the Rombauer portfolio diversity and breadth for more choices in pairing foods with wine. 

Straw colored with a slight greenish hue, light-medium bodied, aromas and flavors of tropical fruits with hints of grapefruit citrus, pear and white nectarine with a subtle tones of what the winemaker calls fresh-cut grass, with somewhat flat acidic layer on the lingering finish.

RM 87 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2287301

Rombauer Carneros Chardonnay 2014  

Served as a complement to the seared U12 scallop, vanilla bean butter sauce, and mango-pineapple salsa. In retrospect, we felt the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc would've best been switched, with the bigger fuller Chardonnay being served with the more obtuse forward caviar above, and the Sauvignon Blanc with the more moderate subtle scallop course. In any event, the Chardonnay was one of the highlights of the flight. 

From the 2014 vintage, another ideal growing season with warm, dry conditions that resulted in excellent fruit quality that resulted in wine with rich flavors and a creamy texture for great QPR - quality price ratio in a quality Napa Chardonnay.

Butter colored, medium bodied, pleasant aromas and rich bright flavors of citrus with tones of pear and creamy vanilla, with hints of mango, melon, spice and butter with nice acidity on the tangy finish. 

RM 90 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2162560

Rombauer Vineyards Carneros Merlot 2012

Served with seared pork tenderloin medallion, sweet potato mash, and cherry-herb demi-glace. The sweet potato was especially nice against the Merlot.

This Rombauer Vineyards Merlot has been produced since 1983. The Merlot fruit is sourced from Rombauer estate and select partner growers' vineyards in the Carneros region, at the top of San Francisco Bay where the Napa and Sonoma Valleys meet, at the bottom of the Mayacamas Range that separates and helps form the two. 

The Carneros Appellation has a cooler climate, moderated by the gentle breezes and fog that creep in off the bay. The area is more known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay than Bordeaux varietals such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Blends of these wines indicate their profile and relative relative positioning as Merlot is used to soften the firmer tighter Cabernet Sauvignon, while Cabernet is used to provide a bit of backbone and structure to the softer Merlot. Petit Verdot is generally used to provide color and structure to both.

Dark ruby colored, medium bodied, complex, moderate soft tones of black raspberry, plum and cherry fruits with subdued tones of tobacco, floral, oak and spice turning to a smooth polished tannins on the finish. 

Blend of 92% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Petit Verdot, aged 16 months in French oak barrels.

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1944166

Rombauer Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Served with grilled hangar steak, red peppercorn-shallot maitre d’Hotel butter, oven roasted beets, and herb demi-glace. The peppercorns were a bit much for my preference as I feel they detract from the wine experience. Never-the-less a fine complement to the the flagship Rombauer labels, this Cabernet a consistent achiever with reasonable QPR - quality price ratio for Napa Cabernets.

Representing the ideal 2013 vintage where all boats rise with the tide - a near perfect growing season that should prove to be one of Napa's best in many years. 

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, complex but nicely balanced, flavorful pleasant drinking black berry, black cherry fruit flavors highlighted by tones of cassis, mocha, vanilla and toasty oak on a smooth tannin finish. 

RM 90 points. 

89 rating from Wine Spectator

Blend of 87.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Merlot aged seventeen months in 70% new oak.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2188112

Rombauer "Diamond Selection" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 

Served side by side the Cabernet with the grilled hangar steak, red peppercorn-shallot maitre d’Hotel butter, oven roasted beets, herb demi-glace.

This Diamond Selection is the Rombauer flagship signature reserve label featuring the select best representation of the finest lots from the harvest. This reserve bottling has been produced since the 1994 vintage, sourced from estate and top grower vineyards from the Stags Leap, Calistoga, Atlas Peak, St. Helena and Howell Mountain appellations (AVAs). 

This showcases the best from the near-perfect 2012 vintage with its long, warm growing season with consistent moderate temperatures that produced high-quality fruit that made for soft, rich wines with well-developed flavors. 

Dark purple garnet colored, medium bodied, elegantly balanced, smooth polished wine, aromas and flavors of black fruits - nicely integrated blackberry, black currant and black cherry fruits accented by subtle tones of mocha, tea, sweet oak and spice turning to smooth polished silky tannins on the lingering finish.
 

RM 91 points. This was the consensus favorite of our table.
 

Blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and 6% Petit Verdot, aged 18 months in 100% new French oak.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2196444 

Rombauer California Zinfandel 2014

Served with el Cotijo Spanish Manchego, Don Juan Drunken Goat, Entrepinares Cured Iberico, house smoked thyme dusted walnuts, and dark fruit compote. A pleasant tasty finish course, but the sweetness of the Zinfandel screamed for dark mocha chocolate! 

As noted above, the ideal 2014 vintage growing season with warm, dry conditions resulted in excellent quality fruits.

Note its called a California Zinfandel, as opposed to Napa Valley or Sonoma or Amador County; that's because rather than being from one or more appellations within one region, this Zinfandel release is a blend from lots from select vineyards from several of the top growing regions known for Zinfandel: El Dorado (39%), Amador (35%), Lake (16%) and Napa (10%) counties. 

Dark purple ruby colored, medium full bodied, full forward complex concentrated black berry bramble fruits - sweet black berry and black raspberry with tones of mocha, anise, vanilla and spice with hints of pepper on the smooth chewy tannin lingering finish.

Right up there with the Chardonnay as one of the highlights of the evening,  it was actually too sweet for the rest of our group, but for me, this was delicious and cries for barbecue or dark chocolate.

I can't believe we've overlooked this label. This, or wine like it, should be a staple in every cellar for such pairing occasions! 

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2346927

http://www.rombauer.com/

http://vinchicago.com/

http://adelles.com/

Vin Chicago Adelle's Wine Dinner   -
https://vinchicago.com/blog/entry/rombauer-wine-dinner-in-wheaton