Last month we had a marvelous evening savoring the signature dishes of chef Rich Mead, who owns two Sage restaurants in Newport Beach.
I am finishing up a bit more research on Rich’s style of cooking and where he gets his inspiration, so that’s for another column.
For now, I have some information that can’t wait,an Afternoon Tea at Sage’s Eastbluff location (the other Sage is at the Crystal Cove Promenade mall).
Sage will start offering a proper tea on Thursday at 2 p.m. For anyone who has known high tea, here or in Europe, where afternoon tea is part of the culture, this is a genteel way of relaxing and doing something good for the body,more and more medical reports are touting the positives of drinking tea.
Sage will make 14 kinds of tea available for the event. Petit-fours and freshly baked scones are part of the tea service, along with the accompaniments of clotted cream and jams.
Also presented are a variety of tea sandwiches. Ev-erything is served on fine English china and in the relaxed manner of historical high tea that is meant to summon feelings of well-being.
The cost for the tea is $20.
Sage plans to offer a high tea regularly on the third Thursday of each month.
Sage Eastbluff is at 2531 Eastbluff Drive, Newport Beach. Phone (949) 718-9650 for further information and reservations for the tea or to reserve a table for lunch or dinner.
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Wine cellar at the St. Regis: Motif restaurant hosted Selby wine dinner |
Selby Cellar
Susie Selby sashayed into town recently to speak about her wines and to share them with a roomful of people who love to discover fine food and wine.
This food- and wine-matching evening was presented at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa, in its most attractive Motif restaurant. The hotel has more than 14,000 bottles of wine in its cellar.
The Selby Winery dinner played to a sold-out room of gourmets who were treated to a personal perspective of the wines. Susie was joined by two others who elevated the evening into something even more special.
Susie can do quite well on her own,she’s cute as a button, erudite and interesting as a self-made winemaker and winery owner,but it sure doesn’t hurt to have a certified master sommelier and a chef of amazing talents to share the stage.
The Selby wines flowed generously and audience members ordered the wines for their home cellars.
The food for the evening showed what a delectable experience dining in Motif can be.
As background, Selby’s grapes are sourced from vineyards in Alexander Valley, Dry Creek, Russian River and Carneros in Sonoma County. The winery was founded in 1992 by the late David Selby, Susie’s father. He was a nationally known spinal surgeon who served as a paratrooper with a helicopter squadron in Vietnam.
Originally from South Bend, Ind., Dr. Selby moved the family to Dallas in the mid-1960s. One of his most ardent hobbies was tasting wines. He imparted his passion for wines to Susie.
By the mid-1980s, Dr. Selby was trekking regularly to Napa Valley and making some wines of his own at private wineries.
Meanwhile, Susie was busy in college but still sharing a deep passion for wine with her father. She attended Vanderbilt University and then George Washington University, where she received a master’s in business administration. She tried the corporate ranks for a decade but the enthusiasm for wine won out and she joined her father who had set up a winery in Healdsburg.
Her hands-on training began as the tasting room manager. She took on marketing for their winery. She drove a forklift and learned about fermentation and how to handle it for different varietals. She learned about barrels and how to gauge the progress of the wine in them and how to choose wines for blending. She has always loved the harvest and the crush, when things begin anew and when the personality of each vineyard, shaped by the season’s weather and the earth, reveals itself.
Susie transitioned from being a cellar rat to an assistant winemaker and began blending and tweaking wines. Not long after, she was in complete charge and today serves as the winery’s chief executive and sole winemaker.
Susie believes in the symbiotic relationship of the winemaker and the grapes. Grapes are picked by hand, fermenting and aging are overseen as a parent watches over a child. Even the bottling is done by hand. Under her tutelage, the wines have taken on a cult status.
The winery’s first vintage was 1993. Selby wines have been served at state dinners at the White House, among other places.
Back at the St. Regis, Susie chatted a little about how she made each wine that was served. Then Peter Neptune stepped up as each course of food and wine progressed and he filled us in with delightful tidbits about the varietals and Selby wines.
The crowd also had several opportunities during the evening to discuss the food with the resort’s executive chef, Azmin Ghahreman, who was responsible for the menu.
Peter is one of just 123 people who have earned the master of sommelier title from Britain’s Court of Master Sommeliers. Thousands have taken the exam and even repeated it, only to find it too difficult.
I’ve been lucky to know Peter for more than 20 years. He’s selected the wines for many of my dining adventures over the years and it was a great pleasure to watch this audience hang on his words.
Peter is vice president of corporate training and wine education for the Henry Wine Group, which has an office in Newport Beach. He can be contacted by e-mail at petern@henrywinegroup.com.
There was a reception before dinner. With so many eclectic canap & #233;s offered, one had to be vigilant against overindulging so early on. They passed crab-salted cod fritters, very miniature Kobe beef cheese burgers in puff pastry buns, shrimp Louis rolls, calamari poki, Sonoma foie gras BLTs and poured Selby 2005 Ros & #233; of Syrah.
This wine is a lovely example of a dry ros & #233;, bright and embracing due to fermenting in stainless steel. It features hints of wild strawberries and slightly tart raspberries. This wine sells for about $9.
Our dinner began with a sashimi grade tuna carpaccio on one side of a rectangular plate and a briny Carlsbad del sol oyster with a Yuzu Vinaigrette on the other. The matched wine was Susie’s 2003 Sauvignon Blanc. It’s unfiltered and dances with citrus fruit (lots of orange quality) and a receding layer of sweet herbs, all wrapped in a creamy quality. The wine costs about $12. Only 112 cases were made.
I’ve always loved curry dishes and Azmin did a unique turn with steamed halibut. He kept the curry soft and very tropical with the addition of banana and some caramelized pineapple-coconut chutney. The paired wine, a Shelby 2004 Chardonnay (from hillside vineyards in the Russian River Valley), was complex and full of tropical tastes: bananas, pineapple and passion fruit. It was smooth and buttery from its barrel fermentation and hand-stirring every three weeks.
Susie said Selby’s chardonnays haven’t changed in style since the first 1993 vintage. I can drop a celebrity name here: Robert Redford. He loves her chardonnay and Susie makes all the chardonnay for his Sundance Festival. Retail $28.
A serving of what can be pretty common confit of duck got a complete culinary redo. Azmin used duck leg and thigh for the dish. He marinated them in herbs and sea salt and then roasted them in a hot oven so that the outside crisped well over the tender interior meat. That’s not the unusual part. The twist came with the mole sauce infused with chocolate and cherry flavors to great success.
The 2003 Merlot served with the duck floated a merry m & #233;lange of cherry and chocolate, too, along with some berry and ripe plum flavors. The wine had a silky texture. The wine sells for $24.
Next was a lamb loin with its barely discernable cocoa and caf & #233; latte jus surrounding the meat. Susie served her 2002 Cabernet, which also has some seductive chocolate notes as well as lots of blackberry, cassis, and sniffs of leather and spice. The wine retails for $28.
As if we hadn’t indulged enough, yet another interesting culinary feat faced us. A wedge of Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog goat cheese was delivered with the surprise of freshly made crusty bread dotted with bacon. Alongside the slice of hot bread was a tomato-pistachio jam.
We slathered on the jam and then topped it with the cheese and sighed. We were now into two zinfandels for this course and the dessert: a pear poached in the wine with some rosemary, a second sweet called a wild strawberry fromage blanc puff tart, a Scharffen Berger chocolate flourless biscuit and a small scoop of zinfandel granite. Wow.
The zins were Susie’s 2003 Dry Creek and 2002 Bobcat Zinfandel, two decidedly different wines. The Dry Creek Zin, poured with the cheese course, was my favorite. Though rampant with wild cherry, berry, plum and licorice flavors, it was a delicately balanced wine from old vines. Its alcohol level was 15%.
More extracted flavors and a powerful character packing 16.5% alcohol marked the Bobcat. This is an intense wine that unwinds nicely if allowed to breathe for a few minutes before drinking. It has some brushwood undertones propping up the blackberry, cassis and jammy layers. Dry Creek Zinfandel costs about $24 while the Bobcat goes for $32.
The Selby wines might be even cheaper at large wine shops, so do a little research before buying.
The Selby Winery Tasting Room is at 215 Center St., Healdsburg, in Sonoma County. Phone is (707) 431-1703 and the wines are widely available at local wine shops.
Motif Restaurant is at the St. Regis, One Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. Phone: (949) 234-3200. There’s complimentary valet parking for diners.