Berserkers and Foodies,
Fellow board member Jay Shampur and I got together for a safe dinner amongst just three of us with a friend of his named Japhet Bower. Japhet is a professional bartender and mixologist who runs the cocktail programs for several local restaurants. He’s also picked up some amazing cooking skills and graciously put together a restaurant quality meal for us. Naturally, since Japhet was providing the food, Jay and I provided the wine as our contribution to the meal.
ADAMO 2017 BLANC DE NOIRS – 100% local Niagara Pinot Noir goes into this traditional method sparkler. Bright straw gold color. Nice almond cream flavors. Yeasty, lots of autolytic biscuit and nut flavors, nice touches of phenolic bitterness.
MONTE DE PECEGUINA 2018 ROSE – Portuguese Rosé from Touriga Nacional and Aragonez grapes. As you all well know by now, I am far, far too manly to drink Rosé wine but I made an exception this time out of politeness. Natch. Very glad I did. Fresh ripe strawberries all day and night with a floral nose. Honestly on par with a Tavel style Rosé but lacking the strong tannic notes of that style of wine. Honestly a superb Rosé even by my manly man standards.
NIEPOORT 2014 REDOMA BRANCO – This delicious Portuguese white is blended from a large variety of local Portuguese grapes including Rabigato, Códega do Larinho, Viosinho, Donzelinho and Gouveio. It’s pretty much impossible for Derek Niepoort to make anything less than a great wine and this was no exception. Intensely creamy, lots of dragonfruit flavor, a nice saline finish. Almost like a rich dry white Port without the extra fortification.
DOMAINE SCHLUMBERGER 2014 RIESLING GRAND CRU SAERING – This Alsacian Riesling is fantastically crisp with a full body and bright lemon flavors mellowed out by lees induced breadiness. A great flavorful palate cleansing wine. This was Japhet’s favorite wine of the table wines and I was honestly torn between this and the Redoma Branco.
CHATEAU RIEUSSEC 2009 SAUTERNES – My very last bottle of 2009 Sauternes and I saved the best one for last. Proving again what a great vintage 2009 was for sweet Bordeaux, this bottle was amazing. Lots of botrytis tingle and bursting with lemon, roasted pineapple and vanilla cream flavors. This was so good that Japhet spontaneously pulled out a couple of cheeses to go with it and so we had a simple but delicious impromptu dessert to end the meal with.
Japhet started our dinner off with a mixed green salad of beetroot and arugula leaves and fresh green peas dressed with a dill weed and pumpkin seed rice wine vinaigrette and a very special ingredient – bagel seasoning. You know, the stuff you sprinkle on traditional bagels before you bake them. This was delicious and I actually went back for seconds.
Our main course was pan-fried rainbow trout with a green herb cream sauce. On the side, he made beet and eggplant dressed with a maple balsamic dill vinaigrette and walnuts and roasted carrots with honey butter, thyme and pumpkin seeds. The carrots were also topped with a fresh sour cream based crema.
As previously mentioned, Japhet pulled out a pair of cheeses for dessert. These were a Dutch Gouda with Sicilian lemon and charcoal (aka Black Lemon Gouda) and a Quebec mild Bleu.
Our thanks to Japhet for his hospitality and his cooking skills. Next time Jay is doing the main and I’ll be bringing an actual dessert. Of course there will be much more wine and maybe even a cocktail or two. Until then, here’s the bottle lineup for the evening.
