Taste My Vacation Dinner!

As you know, I spent a wonderful week of vacation in Walla Walla last month, and to help celebrate and share my experiences with my friends, I hosted a "Taste My Vacation" dinner with individual courses and wine pairings.  And now is my chance to share that with everyone else virtually!  So enjoy the photos and taste my Walla Walla vacation!

The first course was a classic summer Caprese salad, with fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzarella topped with 25-year balsamic, Tuscan herb olive oil and fresh basil.  This appetizer was paired with a lovely 2014 Maison Bleue Bourgeois Grenache, with lovely fruit and mineral notes that perfectly accented the sweetness of the balsamic and creaminess of the mozzarella.

The second course was wasabi seared sea scallops over a bed of baby arugula tossed with 25-year white balsamic.  This course was paired with a 2015 Helix rose, the dry rose was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the white balsamic.

The main course was a grilled price ribcap with roasted asparagus and butter braised Yukon gold potatoes.  This course was paired with a 2014 Seven Hills Clone 191 Cabernet Sauvignon which perfectly accented the robust flavors of the steak and the creaminess of the potatoes.

Ant to end the evening, we had a lovely summer dessert of vanilla ice cream topped with espresso balsamic, fresh raspberries and 86% dark chocolate.  A lovely finale to the taste of my vacation.  Cheers!

Les Bourgeois Jeunette Rouge NV

And so it begins!  I am starting to post my reviews from my "Taste My Vacation" event held last weekend, so brace yourselves, this is going to be good!  We will go in the same order we tasted them, so if you click here you can see what we tasted and the order, etc.  Since we are going in order, tonight's review is of a little wine I bought at a small winery in Missouri called Les Bourgeois, just east of Kansas City (don't ask how far, this was a distraction as I was so focused on getting barbecue!).  Oh, and for all of these reviews, please excuse my photos, I took them with my phone and even though I took them all before the tasting began, it still looks like I took most of them well into the evening festivities!

Now what's interesting about this winery and Missouri in general is a specific grape called the Norton grape, as this is apparently the only wine grape that is native to North America, all the rest have been transplanted here over the centuries from Europe.  Now the Norton grape has a long and storied history, and was cultivated and made into wine not long after the revolution, including on Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia.  It was made into some award-winning wines in the mid-19th century, so it has some heft behind it.  Now I tried Les Bourgeois' pure Norton wine at their tasting room, and I'll admit I was taken aback when the young lady serving the wine asked me if I liked mushrooms, and then informed me that if I liked mushrooms I'd like this wine.  Not exactly a stellar endorsement, and since I really am not a big mushroom fan, I was prepared for the worst.  I was not let down, it was pretty repugnant at least in my taste.

So, I tried the Jeunette Rouge, which was a blend that contained some Norton along with a number of other varietals, and in this case I was pleasantly surprised.  The wine has a lighter color and body, similar to a pinot noir.  The nose is full of red berries, leather and an earthy aroma of mushrooms and moss.  The taste was very fruit forward, with the berry flavors quickly giving way to flavors of fresh herbs midpalate, and then leading to some wonderfully mild tannins and a smooth, dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this one a solid 7, it wasn't spectacular, but for only $12 it was certainly well worth taking home from Missouri!  This one would pair nicely with some stronger fish dishes, or some classic southern cuisine given the earthiness and how that might accent some comfort foods.  So if you get down to Missouri and want to try some wine from the Norton grape, I highly recommend it!