Last week I attended a special wine pairing event co-sponsored by
Stage House Restaurant and Tavern and
CoolVines to showcase their new raviolis and AI Selections Italian wines. I'm a big fan of both of these establishments, so it is no surprise that I enjoyed an evening of good food, good wine and good friends.
Our table consisted of six people I corralled for the evening, plus a wildcard couple - let's call them Steven and Sara. Steven was, shall we say, very entertaining, in a heartwarming, sidekick kind of way. Definitely gave us a few chuckles, even though we were laughing more at him than with him. But after his 10th glass of wine I don't think it bothered him too much.
Stage House does everything big. Their lamb shank makes a brontosaurus burger look like an appy. Their free BBQ includes heaping portions of meat. They even have a "big salads" section on their menu that would make Elaine Benes drool. It's no surprise then that they scored big on their new raviolis.
The tasting menu included five different raviolis: spinach with wild mushroom in a pesto emulsion, goat cheese with pancetta lardons and a roasted red pepper cream, smoked chicken ricotta in a brandy tomato concasse, short rib with English peas, mushrooms in a red wine demi, and maple, butternut squash in a Frangelico, pecan brown butter sauce. Each course was expertly paired with an obscure italian wine from off the beaten path. It was a night of new tastes and a fantastic way to kick off the autumn eating season (which goes from now until New Years).
What did I learn? Well, Steven taught us some international lingo. "Merci" means thank you in French and "Grazie" means thank you in Italian. Ummm, yeah, we know. He's also not used to "Savayon Blancs" outside of California. Really Steven? We had you pegged as an international traveller! This guy just did not stop yapping.
It's a good thing we had Burke from AI Selections and Damon O'Gara from CoolVines to educate us about the wines. The Bianco del Coppo was a light, crisp & refreshing
Sauvignon Blanc and complemented the vegetable based ravioli filling and sauce quite well. The red that stands out to me was a pinot noir style light bodied red from the German/Italian border. There is nothing on this bottle that indicates anything about the style, aging process or taste of this wine. You can have fun and try to stump your oenophile friends with this Cantina Produttori Bolzano 2009 "Huck am Bach." Show them the bottle and see if they can guess what hides inside.
My favorite pairing was the Moroder 2006 Rosso Conero with the smoked chicken pasta. I am usually not one to really grasp wine tasting to the extreme where I truly feel like I am "walking through a meadow of azaleas" or "in a musty cave with wet wood." But after my first sip I suggested out loud it was reminiscent of "smoke hovering over a recently erupted volcano" and low & behold hit it right on the nail.
After the smoke cleared, the rest of the pairings were a bit hazy. Not just because they were filling our glasses full for each course, but because upon return to the table from taking a phone call, on my fifth course, I had 3 full reds in front of me and had no idea which belonged to which.
So I sipped from them all as I finished my raviolis. Actually, Steven finished 2 of my plates and 2 of my friend's plates. We had apparantly become best buds and he felt comfortable enough chowing down on my unfinished plate. What he did not finish, because I did not leave any behind, were the short rib and butternut squash raviolis, my top choices from the evening. The short rib ravioli was just astonishing. I would absolutely order this again. The pumpkin ravioli was a delicious way to end the night, as the maple syrup and pecans sweetened the palate. It would also make a fabulous brunch item.
Surprisingly, Steven suggested the best pairing of the evening: a scoop of vanilla ice cream over the pumpkin rav. It would have been the perfect complement to this course and a fine way to end another great evening.
Visit
CoolVines for information on their upcoming wine tastings dinners at Limani and RWJ Fitness.
