The French-themed wine dinner at The Faithful Pilot last night was executed quite nicely and I'm happy to report I found yet another delightfully fresh and flavorful French rose' from the stellar 2009 vintage along with a grenache-syrah-mouvedre blend from 2008. The latter paired very nicely with the superbly prepared Pekin Duck. I shutter to think how good the 2009 will be. I also had my very first morel mushrooms...now I see why people confound themselves in woods for hours just to find the occasional handful of these midwest morsels.
I must admit some disappointment with the dessert, Chef Robert Cook's unique take on strawberry shortcake; it was a tad dry and could've used additional creme' fraiche. On a positive not the strawberry sorbet was very flavorful and brought out the fruit flavors of the gamay-based dessert wine (gamay is the grape varietal in the popular beaujolais, a great summer sipping wine I might add).
All in all chef-owner Robert Cook and his partner in crime (or is it creme?) Moira expertly executed a very enjoyable dinner of french themed delights. If you haven't checked them out, do yourself a favor and get to Le Claire.
Because I said so.
Glad to hear nice words said about rose. People see a pink wine and automatically think "white Zinfandel," which is, of course, neither white nor a true Zinfandel. But frankly you have me baffled. How does one mess up strawberry shortcake? I remain unconvinced that I'm tempted to take a trip to LeClaire. You'll have to tell us more in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think it was gluten-heavy BH; it wasn't the traditional sponge cake approach. I agree @ rose'- french especially. 09 was a stellar vintage all across french growing regions so if you see any snag it!
ReplyDeleteIf you do go to FP and have a good experience my work is done. And be nice for God's sake.