The Pascal Wine Dinner at La Vie en Rose in Brea on Nov. 9 is worth the trip to North County, even if you don’t live nearby.
And it’s a must-attend if you like being on the inside track of tasting lovely boutique wines that are not ordinarily found on wine lists.
Having gone to a few of these special wine dinners at La Vie en Rose, Patrick and I are always interested in the next one.
Some of our food- and wine-inclined friends have even joined us because it’s so refreshing to taste worldly wines that we haven’t discovered yet.
Might as well mention here that the latest edition of the Zagat Survey gives La Vie en Rose 25 points for food, 25 for decor and 26 for service, out of 30 points for each category.
It is, like always, hailed as a place of comfort for Francophiles with great food, service and ambiance.
This dinner consists of a welcome gathering and four-course meal with five wines.
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Owner Laulhere: place of comfort for Francophiles |
It begins at 7 p.m. with a reception featuring Blanquette de Limoux sparkling wine.
Dinner follows with a beginning course of grilled sea scallop and shrimp brochette in puff pastry (with a fine herbs mousseline), matched with 2006 Domaine de la Villaudiere Sancerre.
Here’s a little fun aside on Sancerre wine. Regular customers of La Vie en Rose, Warren and Aletha Weidemann, once took us to dinner at Pascal restaurant (no relationship to these wines) in Newport Beach and Sancerre became an important part of that evening.
Among the wines that Warren enjoyed and occasionally collected were a couple of highly regarded,and high ticket,California wines that were on the restaurant’s list.
He had a quick glance inside the wine folder and ordered a chardonnay and a cabernet with a combined cost of almost $230.
In a moment when my actions preceded my manners, I took the wine list from his hands and said, “Warren, what are you doing? This is a French restaurant. Let’s order a lovely little wine from France at about one third the cost.”
After perusing such wines that were listed, and talking a bit with Pascal Olhats himself, we ended up drinking Sancerre.
It turned out that Warren was just used to ordering wines that he knew and had no idea that a good, but much less expensive, Sancerre could be so at home at a meal like we were about to savor. He and his wife now enjoy Sancerre and other local wines of various countries, along with our big name California wines.
It all turns out good for me, as Warren and Aletha are helping me with my job by telling others about the charms of such wines and we love joining them at food and wine dinners, especially some of these winners that Louis Laulhere, owner of La Vie, puts together.
Back to the menu.
La Vie’s second course is a duo of roasted venison and veal chop. The venison will have a pepper sauce and the veal will be complemented with a creamy morel mushroom sauce.
A 2004 Ch & #226;teau Pont Saint-Martin Grand Vin de Graves will accompany the food.
The Europeans have their salad course after the entree to aid in digestion. Thus, comes a salad of endive accompanied, of course, by some assorted French cheeses. Wine: 2004 Franc Patarabet, Saint Emilion Grand Cru.
Chocolate and vanilla canneles de Bordeaux with hazelnut sauce as the dessert is accompanied by a 2004 Jurancon Ch & #226;teau de Rousse, along with plenty of guests expressing a pleasurable evening, I’m sure.
Canneles have been described by the Food Network as “portable cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e” in deference to their crunchy exterior and moist, creamy and delicate interior.
They are indigenous to Bordeaux and one of the first things I eat when in that region of France.
Cost of the wine dinner,and all these educational tastes,is $75 per person.
Reservations: (714) 529-8333. La Vie en Rose is at 240 S. State College Blvd. (at Imperial, two blocks West of the 57 Freeway), Brea.
