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Get Breaking News on your cellFood-driven Spring Mountain dinner at The Mansion
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July 2008
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Not to slobber all over the Rosewood Mansion Restaurant, but these days when I get to attend a special dinner there, I anticipiate that it will in some way push the envelope. I wasn't disppointed over the weekend when exec chef John Tesar and wine director Michael Flynn devised their wine dinner for Spring Mountain Winery in the Napa Valley. "This is the first time we're doing a wine retrospective of this magnitude," said winemaker Jac Cole, there for commentary. To wit: an 11-year vertical tasting. (Great slide show of the estate here.) What's a vertical tasting? You taste one wine through several vintages, in this case the Spring Mountain Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, later renamed Elivette, from 1993 through 2003. Read on to see what the Mansion duo did with these wonderful wines. Most vertical tastings proceed in order by year. Not this one. Tesar and Flynn said they created a food-driven tasting dinner, which meant grouping vintages with similar characteristics. First course: 1993 and 1994 were served with roasted porcini mushrooms, wild mushroom syrup, carnaroli rice, foie gras emulsion and pomegrante seeds - earthy like the strong minerality of the wines, with the pomegranate to catch the fruit notes. Second course: 1998 and 1999 were paired with rosy, pan-roasted breast of squab with butternut squash, chanterelles and tiny bits of pancetta, which squared the brighter fruit of these more balanced vintages. Third course: 2001 (first year of Elivette), 2002 and 2003 with star-anise-cured breast of Peking duck with orange, chizo and golden raisin couscous. These were rich and round with softer tannins. The 2001 was like a dark chocolate-raspberry bar made in Bordeaux. Fourth course: 1995, 1996, 1997, with rare tenderloin of buffalo, creamy white polenta, huckelberry gastric and red wine reduction, the deep red meat course. These beautiully structured wines struck a nimble balance between earthy characteristics and mountain fruit, all three stand-up good with the bufflalo. (You can't buy the '96 and '97 from the winery any longer.) Fifthe course: 2000 with selected dry-aged cheeses. This was my favorite of the night and turns out to be estate owner Jacqui Safra's favorite, too. "It's leaner, more Bordeaux-like," said Valli Ferrell, who does PR. "Mountains give you big wines." It's $125 from the winery. Gotta say, Tesar and Flynn knocked it out of the park with these pairings. Of course, they had some great wines to work with. And thank you, chef Tesar, for not overstuffing us. The amount of food was just right. |
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