Stuffed Oenophile: Qupe Wine Dinner

It's funny how some things come full circle. Four years ago, I was in Minneapolis for a professional conference. One of my good friends lives there, and we went out to dinner one evening to an Italian restaurant. The food was unremarkable, but I do remember the wine we shared, a bottle of the Qupé Syrah. At that conference, I also took (and passed!) a certification exam for the specialty area upon which I've built my practice.



Fast forward four years… I wrote the first version of this post on a plane to Minneapolis for the same conference, the aftermath of which at work has led this post to be a little later than originally planned. The prior weekend, Hubby and I attended a full Qupé pairing dinner. Things have gotten bigger and better for all of us, it seems.

We had heard of Local Three Kitchen & Bareven before they opened, when chef Chris Hall contributed a course to the Brick Store Orval dinner two years ago. When our friend Joe Herrig, aka the Suburban Wino, tweeted about the pairing dinner, we jumped at the chance to join him.


I'll go ahead and get my one complaint out of the way. The dinner information had said that the "reception" would start at 6:30. Hubby and I got there a little after 6:30 and were shown to the room where the dinner was to be held, a semi-formal space watched over by the gopher from Caddyshack (I'm not even going to get into the rubber chickens). The servers poured the water, but nothing else. Several people bailed to the bar until the real meal was supposed to start at 7. I decided to hold off since I knew that we'd be drinking plenty, but still, it was somewhat annoying.

The first course soothed any ruffled feathers. The Hamachi Tartare with avocado, yuzu, and snow pea, and topped with micro cilantro, was fresh and tender. The creaminess of the avocado and texture of the tuna were the perfect pairing for the 2009 Qupé Bien Nacido Cuvee, a blend of 50% viognier and 50% chardonnay. Crisp citrus on the nose and front of the palate gives way to very smooth melon with floral notes from the viognier and creaminess from the chard. Yep, this was a texture pairing, and the food brought out the fruitiness of the wine.

The second course was probably my favorite other than dessert. The Florida rock shrimp were cooked to the sweet spot of fully done but not chewy and served with spinach and ricotta ravioli. The pairing, 2008 Qupé Block 11 Chardonnay, had a gorgeous color. It's done on new oak, but the high acidity kept it from being an oak bomb. It's well balanced with citrus and a little vanilla.



It's Georgia, so you know there had to be peaches. A fairly traditional grilled Georgia peach, arugula, and blue cheese salad with almonds allowed the 2008 Qupé Bien Nacido Vineyard Roussanne to shine. This was, to me, a perfect white: crisp and fruity with enough acidity to go with food but not too much to be enjoyed on its own. At $40 a bottle, it was also the most expensive wine of the night. (check out the aforementioned Suburban Wino's homage to Roussane, inspired by the dinner).

My new favorite restaurant food is sliders, and I love duck, so I was excited about the fourth course. Grilled duck sliders with raspberry ketchup came with thin, crisp sweet potato chips. A Cotes du Rhone-style blend of 53% Syrah, 25% Grenache, and 22% Mourvedre stood up to it with its dark berry nose and lingering finish with a hint of butter. As with the first course, the similarities with the food and wine played well together.


Then it was Syrah time! The fifth course, a braised beef short rib with porcini and blueberry risotto got rave reviews from the table for the tender, flavorful beef and mixed reactions to the blueberries. I liked them in the risotto, but I found the whole dish to be salty. The 2008 Qupé Bien Nacido Vineyard Syrah reminded me why I originally filed the name Qupé away in my brain as a Syrah to look out for. Again, the dark fruit was the predominant flavor, but with enough tannic structure to stand up to the food.

The Qupé winemaker's son Ethan represented the winery at the dinner, and he shared some of his own bottling, the 2007 Ethan Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah, with the sixth course. Another pairing of meat and fruit, the roasted cervena venison with cherry compote and herb gnocchi worked much better than the short rib and blueberries. The wine itself was excellent, although not widely available, which caused some wailing and gnashing of teeth at our table. Lighter bodied and with brighter fruit than the previous Syrah, I would have put it earlier in the lineup if it had been a straight-up tasting.

Believe it or not, we found room for the seventh (!) course, a chocolate truffle cake topped with ganache and served with chocolate cremeux (think chocolate cream that's heavier in texture than whipped but lighter than ice cream) and cherry sauce. Sadly, it killed the wine, an earthy 2006 Qupé Bien Nacido Hillside Estate Syrah. I finished the wine first and then went back to the dessert, which was as rich as it sounds but too good with its three levels of chocolate to leave any behind.



Thanks, Ethan, for coming out east to the dinner to share your wines and knowledge with us, and a big thanks to Chef Hall for an incredible dinner! We will definitely be back to Local Three in the future.

Random Events: Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival, August 8, 2010

The toughest thing about being a wine and food blogger is that the busier I am with wine and food events, the less time I have to write about them. However, if I don't have anything going on, I don't have anything to write about. Luckily, since we got back from the Pacific Northwest, life has been full of fun food and wine events. Add to that some major business changes that require a lot of mental energy, and you can see how I've gotten behind.

How much do Georgians, especially Georgian foodies, love tomatoes? Several hundred (my estimate) came out on a hot, August afternoon to sample dishes and cocktails, all of which had tomatoes as a main ingredient. The tomatoes themselves came from several local farms. The event took place at the JCT Kitchen & Bar complex and courtyard in Midtown, which, thankfully, is oriented well for shade and breezes.



Killer Tomatoes need to be attacking something, so here are the victims of yesterday's festival guardians, who fiercely leered at us from every corner:




Victim 1: Bland, average food

Why am I blogging about the Georgia Organics Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival the night after it happened? Partially so I don't get further behind, but also because I believe in the mission of Georgia Organics, "to integrate healthy, sustainable, and locally grown food into the lives of all Georgians." Few things are more depressing than grocery store tomatoes with their anemic pink flesh and bland flavors. Sure, they get a little better in the summer, but there's nothing to compare to a basket full of gorgeous organic produce:



Vote with your fork, people!

Victim #2: The Boring Bloody Mary

I'll take a Mimosa over a Bloody Mary any day. Thankfully the mixologists came up with several yummy tomato-based cocktails that piqued my interest. The following were my favorites. Yes, each of these was made with hard liquor, and trust me, we spread them out over the afternoon.



I hadn't heard of Sound Table before today, but their drink, the La Mancha, was great, kind of like a tomato mojito with basil instead of lime. I'm definitely intrigued. He also beat out all the other mixologists for the King of Cocktails award.

The crowd favorite – literally, she won the People's Choice cocktail – was Cara Laudino of Miller Union, which Hubby and I have been meaning to try. Her Electric Boogaloo combined sungold tomatoes with some sort of citrus for a yummy and thoroughly sneaky combination.



The most refreshing drink, and my favorite, came from Restaurant Eugene's Nick Hearn. He combined a splash of tomato juice, vodka, and cane sugar syrup Coke for a Tom Cola. I liked how the sweetness of the Coke balanced out the tomato and vodka. It also ended up being sneaky.

Hubby's favorite was also the judge's favorite for Best Presentation. Miles Macquerrie of Leon's Full Service was reigning King of Cocktails from last year's tomato fest. This year, he mixed up The Golden Ticket, which was also based on sungolds, but which didn't taste overly tomato-ish. The presentation? Golden liquid with a sungold skewered over it. Hubby hopes it'll make it on to Leon's cocktail list.

Finally, the "Most Original" drink was the Mason Dixon Sangrita. Hubby tried it and liked it. I think I had given up by that point and switched to non-tomato water.

Victim #3: Uncreative recipes

Atlanta chefs have been coming up with interesting variations of the B.L.T. for years. As Caroline the French Tart blogger commented, "Everything I liked had pork in it!" No, this was not really a festival for the vegetarians. I deemed the following three dishes to be the Pork Trifecta:

The first dish that really wowed me came from Craft Restaurant's Kevin Maxey. His pulled pork lettuce wrap with smoked tomato molasses and heirloom tomato relish satisfied the meat eaters and fulfilled the tomato requirement.



Another great showing of tomatoes with pork came from the other direction. Matt Palmerlee of Farm 255 in Athens brought his Confit BLT. The confit made for a great salty, tender crunch on top of the sandwich.

The final piece of the pork trifecta was courtesy of Chef John Currence from City Grocery Restaurant Group. His roasted mortgage-lifter tomato biscuits, crispy big bad bacon rillettes, basil aioli, and Bluebird Farms arugula could best be described as a porkburger slider with regard to texture, and the biscuits had good density. By the way, Chef Currence gets my admiration and gratitude for coming all the way from Oxford, Mississippi. Thank you!



I'm from Birmingham, so I was excited to see that Chris Hastings from Hot and Hot Fish Club came over to share his Hot and Hot Tomato Salad with fresh corn, field peas, fried okra, applewood smoked bacon, and chive aioli. The tomatoes shone as the main item, and the other players complimented them: the corn with its sweetness, the peas with their texture, the okra with its crunch, and the bacon with its baconness. Do I really have to tell you why the bacon was good?

Finally, the King of Taste award went to Gerry Klaskala of Aria for his grilled cheese keaster with roof top dried tomatoes, applewood smoked bacon, and chipotle dipping sauce. Essentially a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, this one had everything from smoky to tangy to gooey cheese with a little kick. Yummy version of a classic summer favorite!

One other fun B.L.T. variation included the Steamed Coconut Bun B.L.T. from Pura Vida's Hector Santiago:



Miller Union's Steven Satterfield poses with his Heirloom Tomato Aspic:



Victim #4: Conceptualization of Tomato as just a vegetable

In case you thought the Tomato Festival was all about mains, soups, and sides, consider that the People's Choice award went to Keira Moritz of Pacci Ristorante for her heirloom tomato and fruit sorbets and ice creams. I got to try her tomato and peach (I think) gelato, and it was great – perfectly balanced sweetness with a hint of tanginess that was then cut by the creaminess. It was hard to go back to eating the savory stuff after that.

It's great when an event host does well, and Chefs Ford Fry and Brian Horn of JCT Kitchen deserved the Creativity Award for their Killer Tomato Jelly Donuts. Yes, these puffs had bacon fat mayonnaise – I'd mentioned that this food wasn't necessarily healthy, right? – in the middle and were topped with a tomato jelly. All I can say is: wow, can I have breakfast for dinner?

The Best Booth award went to the crew from Holeman & Finch for their "Science Fair Meets High School Musical" theme. However, the Twitter buzz was all about their Heirloom Tomato Corn Dogs with Brandywine Ketchup. The thick sausage in the middle of the corn dog had an incredibly light texture, the coating a great crunch, and the ketchup gave it all a tangy sweetness. When asked what the success of the booth's theme came from, Chef Linton Hopkins' son said, "Corn dogs!" I couldn't agree more.

Victim #5: Atlanta dining out habits

I just remarked to Hubby that we have a lot of restaurants to try and revisit. We tend to be like many others in Atlanta in that we have certain parts of town where we go to eat. This festival reminded me that venturing out can be rewarding.

Final thoughts:

My only suggestion to Georgia Organics now that we've been to both Killer Tomato Festivals is that water needs to be made more available toward the end of the day. Last year, volunteers handed out bottled water, and it lasted through the festival. This year, there were pitchers, and pretty much all had run dry by the mixologist challenge. Other than that, everything was great!

Thanks again to everyone for making it a great event, and special thanks to Chefs Currence, Hastings, Palmerlee, and Acheson (of Athens' Five and Ten) for coming all the way to Atlanta on a hot day to share our love of tomatoes and organic food!


Winning Tomatofest Mixologists and Chefs

For much better pictures mixed with video and catchy music check out Eat It, Atlanta.