On Feb. 5th I attended this dinner at a French bistro-type restaurant as part of Triangle Wine Experience which benefits Frankie Lemmon School for children with exceptional needs. The wines were from the firm of Albert Bichot.
1st course: Jambon Persillee, sauce gribiche, crostini
2013 Macon-Villages Pleasant wine; not exceptional.
2nd course: I asked for a substitute for the oysters and had mussels with the same broth of fennel, diced apple, curry and salmon roe that others had with the oysters. It was a delicious dish!
2012 Vire'-Clesse' One of the best/most memorable pairings I have had at a wine dinner was at a Fayetteville restaurant where a Vire'-Clesse' was paired with an apple salad with radishes, etc. The apple matched the wine in a wonderful way and that was true again with this pairing. The Vire'-Clesse' was richer, more mineral and more elegant than the Macon-Villages and I ordered some bottles for later pickup.
3rd course: Chicken and Crawfish Sausage with leek fondue, whole grain Dijon mustard-tarragon sauce
2013 Chablis, Domaine Long-Depaquit. I was writing my notes later in a hotel room in Chapel Hill and didn't recall anything in particular about this wine. The sauce was so delicious that diners were scraping their plates to get all of it.
4th course: Sauteed trout topped with escargots, potato puree and red wine sauce
2012 Fixin (rouge) Previously I had only had Fixin blanc. With this wine, the palate differed from what I expected from the nose and seemed a bit out-of-kilter. I think others at my table liked it better than I did.
5th course: "Boeuf Borguignon" bone marrow, grilled country bread, frisee salad, bread crumbs
2011 Savigny-les-Beaune and
2012 Mercurey, 1er Cru Champs Martin, Domaine Adelie
I preferred the Savigny-les-Beaune to the Mercurey for drinking now, but the Mercurey did seem to have more depth and layers and was preferred by two of the men at my table. The Savigny had a slight earthiness.
I asked that the chef come out for acknowledgement and was surprised when a petite female appeared. I knew the previous chef had moved on to another venue but didn't know who had replaced him. I looked at Vin Rouge's website to get her name but that still lists Matt Kelly as the executive chef so she may be a sous chef or Matt may still have a hand in more than one restaurant. Anyway, she did a superb job this night on the Triangle Wine Experience dinner. The sauces were especially worthy of note.