My Weekend In Nashville...

[Zeemanb]

You know, I almost hate to post about my Nashville trip since I didn't really get to go out and discover what great foods your town has to offer, other than an evening at The Sunset Grill (which was highly enjoyable....and their "half off wine" happy hour is a thing to behold). However, I did have one of the best food and wine related weekends of my life, and it happened in your town....

I was lucky enough to be a guest of L' Ete du Vin; a non-profit organization that raises money for the American Cancer Society. The focus of is on wine, and I don't know if everyone from Nashville is this much fun, but you all have some very warm and gracious food and wine aficionados. The highlights of the weekend were many, including a tutored tasting at the Vanderbilt Marriott, a private patrons dinner at the Schermerhorn, and a grand auction event where we were staying at the Loew's Vanderbilt Hotel. If you're from the Nashville area and you love wine, go look these folks up, they have events year-round and are genuinely great people.

Anyway, I posted all of the wines we had over the weekend on the wine board, and of course I've got the entire weekend chronicled with pictures and tasting notes over on my blog, but to give you some idea of the kind of shindig they like to throw, here is what we had for dinner at the Schermerhorn on Friday night (food from Chef Grant MacPherson)....

Champagne Reception

Demi-Tasse of Crustacean Bisque

Porcini Arancini, White Anchovy Aioli

Bay Scallop Ceviche, Fine Herbs

Pol Roger Champagne, Brut

First Course

Parfait of Columbian River Sturgeon, Celery Leaves, Hazelnut Dressing

Pol Roger “Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill” Champagne, 1996

Small filet of sturgeon over a quenelle of sturgeon mousse, accompanied with small batonettes of celery root, apple and cucumber. Wonderful texture of the firm sturgeon meat against the smoothness and richness of the mousse, set against the peppery spice of the celery leaves and the earthy, sharp, crispness of the various pieces of fruit and vegetable. It was all about the acidity of the incredible champagne cutting through the richness and earthiness of the dish. Other than the foie (obviously), this may very well have been my favorite dish of the evening. There was a whole lot going on with it.

Second Course

Braised Filet of Black Bass, Heirloom Tomato Fondue, Basil Oil

Louis Jadot “Clos de La Chapelle” Duc De Magenta Chassagne Montrachet, 1998

Like a wonderful caprese salad with bass instead of mozzarella….what a great time of year for tomatoes, absolutely a delicious dish. The wine made it a perfect summertime course, with anise and grass on the nose of the Montrachet, low acidity and alcohol with the flavors opening up big after a few minutes…tons of apple and fresh cracked white pepper.

Third Course

Whole Roasted Foie Gras, Rhubarb Relish, Natural Jus

Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares, 1989

Now, the secret to really enjoying good foie gras at an event like this is to sit next to someone who is not a fan of foie….because you get to eat theirs too. This is one of my favorite foods and up to this point I’d only had it seared or in a torchon. The roasted lobe gives it an entirely different character, it is very soft with almost no caramelization on the outside, which makes it even richer and more luscious in character with a rosy pink slightly rare center. And the fact that it was probably the largest piece of foie I’ve ever been served did not hurt matters. I meant to ask the chef how many servings they carved per lobe, but forgot. In addition, I’m a bigger fan of savory accompaniments with foie, and while the rhubarb relish was still somewhat sweet it was a nice change of pace compared to the usual candy/jelly additions to this type of course.

As delicious as the foie gras was, it was practically eclipsed by the delicious Bonnes Mares. Only 5500 bottles of this wine were made, so it was a very rare treat. The nose on this juice was massive, with lots of leather, heavy, heavy dark fruit flavors and charcoal on the marathon-long finish. It was right around this time that Tom Black arrived at our table with a big glass of Chateau Latour from 1970 for us to pass around and enjoy. This would be an ongoing theme from this moment forward…with the “excuse” for the various wines being that they each represented the birth year from one of the guest winemakers. This wine was beyond me, I was way, way out of my element already, but if this is an indicator of the good life, I could get used to it.

Fourth Course

Oven-Roasted Prime Beef Tenderloin, Wild Mushroom Ravioli, Drambuie Sauce

Chateau Palmer,1988

Chateau Palmer, 1995

I was really spent at this point. The piece of perfectly cooked beef was wonderful and almost tender enough to eat with a dessert spoon, with a big slice of black truffle tucked between the meat and the hand made mushroom ravioli. I had a couple of bites, but had hit the wall with the amount of food I’d had up to this point…..whole proteins will do that to you after bariatric surgery.

The 1995 Palmer was described as a “warm sun” vintage, and was very floral in flavor but still very tight. The 1988 was a “cool vintage” with bright acidity, some strawberry, but overall still quite tight in the glass. I’d love to try some different vintages from Palmer, in order to get a better idea of what this wine is all about.

And our generous ambassador of the finest vintages came over for a couple more visits……first with a 1950 Latour. The perfume of it and the way it coated the tongue was dreamy; so smooth you don’t even feel it when it is swallowed. Next up was a 1960 Latour, which ended up being my favorite because there was a lot more spice and more acid. It was at this point I began to truly understand what a “mature” wine tastes like, and how the flavors open up over the years. I knew that as good as the 1960 was right now, that in the coming years the bolder flavors would mellow out the spice and the acid. In contrast, we then shared a glass of 1965 Latour that was handed to us with the warning that we should “drink it quickly because it’s dying in the glass”. My first taste of it gave up leather and overripe fruit…..but then a few minutes later the character had changed even more with the finish becoming more like a port and the fruit becoming VERY overripe, flabby and loose. What a great experience to not only taste such rare and wonderful wines, but to also begin to understand more of the wine “lingo” that has always escaped me up to this point since I basically spend all of my time drinking grocery store wines (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that)….

Fifth Course

Chilled Coconut Lemon Grass Soup, Pineapple Sago, Mascarpone Ice Cream

Hugel “Selection De Grains Nobles” Gewurtztraminer, 1988

This was a nice, beautiful and light dessert served in half of a coconut, but the star of the show was the Gewurtz…..I am not generally a fan of sweet wines, but this was a lot like drinking a wonderful icewine, with the sweetness never coming off as even slightly cloying. The nose was so big that even at an arm’s length away the fragrance came to find you. When describing the wine for us, Etienne Hugel told us that each bottle represents approximately three hours of manual labor out in the vineyard, picking out the good grapes from those that are too rotted to use.

So, not a bad dinner, but I have to be honest, I was a little peeved that I never managed to make it over to Krystal's during the weekend. They got rid of all of the White Castles in Kansas City, and as much as I love good food and wine, the slider is NOT without its own merit....

When I'm back in town next year, I will do my best to make it out beyond the free continental breakfast at the Loew's and whatever dinners are provided by L' Ete du Vin......

And I promise I won't KEEP asking everyone...."so they really call that the Batman building?"....

[racheld]

Jerry,

This is really an enjoyable read---your conveyance of the tastes and colors and textures just puts the flavors into such FEELABLE words.

I've not been blessed with a palate for wine, but your words, your words. You have a gift for taking a reader right with you, and this has been a sumptuously enjoyable vicarious pleasure---I feel as if I've tasted everything.