When we arrived in Cincinnatti it was dry, much to my relief, becasue my hair does does not do well in the rain. I had started out with "bad hair" on a day I wanted to be cute at our Valentines's day celebration at the "Sensational Sonoma Wine Tasting" hosted by Le Petite France. We got in, got our wine and the natural fireworks began and it was lovely! At one point the rain was coming down almost horizontally. I was glad to be safely ensconced inside. I have written before about our wine tasting dinners at Le Petie France, and a little grumpily, but this time was pretty stinking good. Attendance was down, but the company was good. We were at a table of 9 and conversation was rampant. I may even have a date with one couple when I am in Paris in May!
On arrival we had Copain, Tous Ensemble, Rose. The label was beautiful in its simplicity but this is the sort of wine that gives wine a bad name. I think most folks think this taste, flavor, or "Twang" if you will, is dry wine. This wine was not dry nor very good, and YET I did swill down 2 glasses, to my dismay much later.
The first course was a Dry Creek Vineyards Chenin Blanc and it was devine! The fruity, floral honeyed nose was almost enough for me. But drink it I did! It was served with oyster chowder, & was a very good pairing.
The next wine was a Landmark Overlook Pinot Noir served with smokey morel brandy linguine. When I first lifted the glass to my nose I was very disappointed, and tasting was not much better. But it opened up like a rose and as the linguine and pinot went down, it became amazing. One just had to be patient with it. The pasta was good too!
Next was Goldschmidt Kate's Cebernet Sauvignon, it was served with salmon in a red wine beurre blank, with crispy goetta (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta), a meringue like dolop of whipped potatoes and roasted oregano carrotts. By now, I have been trying not to diet but REALLY cut back, I was stuffed and a bit tipsy. The entree was delicious, the salmon cooked to perfection, the sauce was perfect with it and the wine was nectar
The last wine was Alexander Valley Vineyards, Homestead Red Blend. I am a sucker for Mouvedre and this blend contained Mouvedre so I was in tipsy heaven and about to get tipsier! it was acoompanied by what they called triple chocolate ecstasy. It was a slver of thier delicious marquise, with some chocolate mousse on top and, tilted just so, was a chocolate covered strawberry. It was sitting in some sort of sauce, but that was pretty forgetable.
Jodi drove back to the Wingate up the street, where we got surprise, we had been upgraded to a suite! A satisfactory ending to a lovely evening.
You may wonder where the sacrifice comes in. Well Jodi HATES fish, the look of fish, the smell of fish & two of the four courses was fish. SO this was a pretty big sacrifice for her, to endure a whole three and a half hours of fish effluvia!
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