Sunday, March 25, 2007

Winegrower Dinner at Restaurant Cuvee Napa

I recently attended the Cuvee-Napa Restaurant Winegrower Dinner series event, which featured Roessler winery out of Sonoma County. Roger Roessler is also the principal owner in Cuvee Napa restaurant located on Soscol Avenue near the Napa Valley Wine Train station. His winemaker, Nils Venge (owner: Saddleback Cellars and Venge Vineyards) was also in attendance. Later on I found Napa Valley Vintners Gary Luchtel, owner-winemaker, Surh Luchtel Cellars and Stan Boyd, owner of Boyd Family Wines were in attendance of the event.

The food selections and wines served were:

Aperitif: 2005 Saddleback Cellars, Viognier, Clarksburg AVA. The wine was absolutely elegant. Checking the Web site I found that only 423 cases were produced.

1st Course: Warm Spinach Salad (Roasted beet, goat cheese, bacon, sherry vinaigrettes) - 2005 Roessler Cellars, Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley AVA. This was a very smooth wine with hints to me of chocolate, fruits and soft spice flavors. It was well matched to what I would probably say is the best warm spinach salad I have tasted in very long time.

Pasta Course: Campanelli (Duck and Porcini mushroom sugo) - 2004 Roessler Cellars, Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley AVA. Just about everybody seating around me thought they could just have easily made the whole meal on this course only. It received the most raves during the evening. Again, Roessler’s Pinot was a perfect match to the course. It grabbed my palate and held it but did not overpower my taste buds.

Main Course: Grilled Leg of Lamb (Broccoli rabe, roasted potatoes_ - 2003 Saddleback Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley AVA. Wow! Venge’s Cab. Just cut right through the very rich and delicious lamb and made a most enjoyable combination. The Cab had a very long finish remaining on the back of my palate all the way until the next sip.

Unfortunately the attendees didn’t get a chance to mill around, meet the winemakers/owners and each other before we were ushered into our seats, but wine buyer and assistant manager, Lucas Henning, assured me that his Wine Dinner Events do include such but there were timing conflicts that prevented such an opportunity at this event.

I met so many wonderful people that night but I can’t remember all their names and businesses. I wonder if Cuvee Napa might not want to consider a card basket or plate for guests to leave their contact information and Cuvee Napa publish an attendee list to all who were there the night of their events?

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