Record Crowd Attends Fall Fest Wine-pairing Dinner

The packed October Fall Fest Wine-pairing Dinner fell on Halloween Eve, Tuesday, Oct. 30, so my friend and I couldn’t help comparing the meal’s wines with some of our favorite Halloween trappings, namely candies and costumes. All the wines were from Cline Cellars, a California wine company, and were organic or sustainably grown. Cline Wine Representative Coleman Craft hosted the dinner with help from The Wine Company’s Deb Hessburg. Each wine was robust and distinctive – a great pairing with the dishes prepared by Ingredients Cafe Chefs Ben Pratt and Tony Seguin.
The first course consisted of a crunchy frisee salad with a pear poached in fall spices, roasted local black walnuts and a creamy goat cheese fondue. Craft served a 2006 Viognier with it. This white wine was steel fermented, with no oak intervention so it was crisp and proper – like a stiffly starched Alice in Wonderland costume. Just in time for cold weather’s arrival, the pumpkin pie soup with house-made vanilla marshmallow really warmed us up. Most of the sweetness came from the white foam on top, so the soup’s pumpkin flavor was at the forefront along with the nutmeg and other spices used to flavor it. The cayenne pepper was a surprise, but a welcome one. The wine was a bright 2006 Zinfandel that smacked you right on the kisser with its juicy vibrancy. That’s why I chose to compare this wine to those red wax lips that I used to always get in my candy bag, but now I can’t find in the stores anymore.	In case you want to find their wines in the store, here's their logo. Word on the street is Cline Cellars operates with solar power, now.
You would be forgiven if you mistook the seared duck breast for fine roast beef – it certainly could have fooled me! The generous cut of breast was cooked to a perfect rareness and was so tender that there was no need to accompany it with anything. Nevertheless, the celery root puree added a creaminess, and thechanterelle mushroom and green lentil hash was earthy with just the right amount of chewiness to make it fun to eat. This rich dish meant Craft had to bring out the big guns when choosing the right wine. He paired it with a 2006 Ancient Vines Carignan made with grapes from 75-year-old vines. It exhibited a lot of character, dense in flavor and a heady aroma. The bouquet was almost mesmerizing, like the stare of old Nosferatu in that silent film from the 1920’s. If duck wasn’t enough of a rich delicacy for the evening, the fourth course featured rack of lamb with butternut squash stuffing and apple cider jus. I overheard several patrons sitting around me declare this to be the best lamb they have ever tasted, which was quite a compliment from an at-capacity crowd! This course piled on the sweetness. The stuffing was tender and perfect for sopping up the jus. Paired with it was a 2005 Cashmere. This wine consists of a mix of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah grapes. It was smooth and berrylike and made me think that for Halloween, it should be paired with our favorite sweater girl – Marilyn Monroe!
The finale was a show-stopper as usual, with caramelized apple, house-churned cinnamon ice cream, and a ginger snap phyllo dough “cigar.” My favorite part is always the delicate flavors Chefs Ben and Tony coax out of the dense ice cream, but the whole concoction is lovely. And it was lovely paired with the Late Harvest Mourvèdre. This wine was unctuous, like port, but Craft assured us it was not a fortified wine. All the rich flavor came from the grapes themselves. Its sweetness, but not its flavor, led me to compare this wine with candy corn. Like those little sugar bombs, you don’t want to have too much of it, or it will spoil the special occasion! Look for more wine dinners in the future.	The Late Harvest Mourvèdre shared its sweetness with candy corn, but tasted worlds better.