Last Thursday night I was fortunate enough to go to the exclusive North Carolina Fine Wine Society Dinner at the Umstead Hotel and Spa. A partner at my law firm offered me her two tickets and I would've been an idiot to pass up the chance. This dinner was a 4-course dinner with 2-3 wine pairings per course and the coolest part about it was all the wines were made in North Carolina! Now, you may have limited North Carolina wine knowledge (as do I, frankly) and the most common wine associated with my adopted state is muscadine - an overly sweet and syrupy wine. I hate sweet wines. To me, they're like the gateway wine you drink when you're freshly 21 and think Barefoot Moscato is a "fine wine". I was pleasantly surprised to find that North Carolina produces some truly excellent vintages.
Walking into the luxurious Umstead Hotel located at 100 Woodland Pond Dr, Cary, NC 27513, I had no idea what to expect from this dinner and the anxieties started to flood in "am I overdressed?" "Am I underdressed?" "What if we walk in late and everyone's already started?" "What if there is a staircase and I trip down every single step?!" Yeah to say I was nervous is an extreme understatement. My anxieties were relieved, somewhat. I was lucky enough to meet the organizers of the dinner, Cathy and Dan and they were wonderfully friendly and welcoming. However I quickly realized this dinner was not full of wine novices such as myself and Nate but of vintners, restaurant industry owners and 3rd generation winery owners. I felt sort of like I walked into the wrong college class. However, the winery owners and restaurant big wigs at our table were friendly and didn't make me feel too far out of place.
The food! Oh my goodness! Allow me to jump into the fantastic 4-course meal that I was fortunate enough to eat every single bite of without guilt.
The first course was a crab cake topped with mache lettuce, apple slaw and served alongside a stone ground mustard remoulade and the wine pairings were a fruity and crisp sparkling wine and a rather muted dry Riesling. The crab cake itself was large chunks of well-seasoned crab meat and the slaw and lettuce were the perfect crisp textures to compliment the soft cake. My only complaint about this course would be the remoulade...WHY DIDN'T THEY GIVE US MORE!? The tanginess of the mustard was heaven! I would've gladly slurped it like a soup it was that damn good.
The second course was a lobster bisque but this was unlike any lobster bisque I have ever had in my entire life. A smartly-dressed server placed a large bowl in front of me and at the bottom of the bowl were: 3 large chunks of cooked lobster, a tablespoon of cubed pickled pears and a dry mixture of finely diced pumpkin seeds and spices. My first thought was "is this the avant garde way to serve bisque? Dry?" Thankfully, another server quickly topped my experimental soup with a warmed parsnip puree. I kind of felt like I needed an instruction manual to eat this soup. I tossed the ingredients in the puree and took a bite. The flavors did work remarkably well together. The soup was light and rich however because the lobster and other accoutrements were served before the puree was added, my soup was lukewarm, at best. The wine pairings for this course were a steeled chardonnay made by none other than the delightful woman I was seated next to. I felt a tad pressured to like the wine but I honestly did enjoy it a lot! I've never had an unoaked chardonnay before and will admit, this wine from Cellar 4201 may have turned me. The flavors were rich and crisp but not overly buttery like a traditional chardonnay. The second wine was a petit manseng. I've never had this wine before, hell, I've never even heard of this wine before so I don't want to rag on it too much but I will say I did not care for Jones von Drehle's version, and unfortunately for them, it seemed like not many of the other diners did either based on the high volume of full glasses being returned to servers. On the nose, the wine had the aroma of a skunky beer. The flavor was over-poweringly...bad. Like I said, I don't know how this particular variety of wine is supposed to taste but I know I didn't like it.
The main course was the option of Beef Short Rib or Black Grouper. Naturally, Nate got the beef short rib while I got the gouper. My grouper was buttery soft, topped with a crunchy fennel and kalamata olive salad and served over grits so smooth you could drink them through a straw. The briny crunch of the salad was the perfect texture to offset the buttery-creaminess of the rest of the dish good God it was fantastic and I may want to take the dish to Vegas and marry it. Nate said his short ribs were phenomenal but the real star was the bacon braised Brussels sprouts and parsnip risotto. I think he feels the same way about Vegas. There were 3 wines accompanying this course and they were all so fantastic it was difficult for me to pick a favorite. These wines were not your run of the mill cabernet or pinot noir, ladies and gents, no these were wines I've never even heard of before. Nebbiolo, Montepulciano Riserva and Tannat. As I said, they were all utterly luscious and I would be more than happy to drink glasses of each but I think the Montepulciano Riserva may have beat out the other two just a teeny bit. The wine was dry and dark.
The final decadent course was a Black Forest Cake, but similarly to the bisque, was not what you typically think of. First noticeable difference: it wasn't a cake at all! This dessert was more like a trifle or a parfait with layers of richness. The bottom of the martini-style glass was a dollop of tart cherry jelly and then piped ever-so-carefully on top was a cherry mousse, a chocolate Chantilly cream, fresh whipped cream and a handful of crunchy devil's food croutons. It was heaven! I am unashamed to admit I ate my whole glass in under 3 minutes and was eagerly eyeing the untouched "cakes" around the table. The wine paired with this were a dry Babera and a surprise bourbon-barrel aged port. The Babera was an excellent pair for the ultra-sweet dessert. The port however was not too great in my opinion. The only note I could really say I detected in the wine was the bite from the bourbon. There was none of the sweetness or smokiness that I adore about bourbon...just the bite. Nate drank 3 glasses.
I will forever be thankful for the opportunity to have attended this spectacular dinner! And for those of you counting, yes, we did get a whopping 9 2-ounce pours of wine over the course of the dinner but don't worry, we were very safe and drove carefully to and from the event. Shout out to Theresa for being so generous to have allowed us to enjoy this event! Enjoy this picture of us post 9 glasses of wine.
I give the benefit of the doubt to the Petit Manseng. I think the problem was just that it didn't mesh well with the other whites and felt out of place.
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