Constant Proof

 

 

By Lyn Dowling

Most times, guests at pairing dinners at local restaurants are treated to samples from specific winemakers or distributors the (understandable) idea being to showcase those products. But occasionally owner Alex Litras, who also happens to be one of the area’s great wine experts, pulls a surprise out of his storerooms, and May 25, he provided complete delight.

Each of the wines at that diner was red and each had been given the opportunity to “age in Café Margaux’s cellars,” in Litras’s words. The origin of the wines served mattered only insofar as identification was concerned: they came from Greece and Macedonia, Napa and Sonoma, the north and south Rhône areas. Each was testament to good taste.

“We came up with this idea of pulling things out of our cellar . . . . to turn people on to wines that are ready to drink now that would not have been ready to drink a few years ago. Even if not all of them are old-world wines, they are treated like old-world wines: not intended for immediate gratification,” Litras said.

It started with a statement, in the form of a 2001 Gaia Estate Agiorgitiko from Koursti-Neme in Greece: This was not going to be an evening for cutesiness. Gaia Estate is as bold and powerful a red as you will taste, with a little clove and a little wood on the palate. “Drink this, and you will know you’ve had wine,” joked Andreas Afxendiou, who represents Greek winemakers, and you did, especially as it was served with a hearty, flavorful stew of venison, barley and rutabaga. It is an excellent wine.

Next up was 2005 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas, an aromatic, nicely acidic blend from the south Rhône area of France served with syrah-marinated portobello and frisée, topped with Maytag and toasted almonds.

It was followed by one of Macedonia’s worthy versions of Bordeaux, a 1997 Chateau Carras Cabernet Sauvignon Côtes de Meliton. This is wonderful wine for the brain as well as the mouth, as it is the products of an area that had made fine wines since the time of Aristotle, and its winemakers have been instrumental in reviving the great vines of that part of Europe. This full-bodied wine was served with Szechuan peppercorn-seared swordfish over crimini-leek risotto with a cabernet-French thyme beurre rouge, a rarity in its own right.

The 2003 Jean-Luc Colombo Les Ruchets Cornas may be one of the best wines Litras ever has served: an exposition in glass of the excellence of northern Rhône wines. The a magnificent, complex syrah was beautifully matched with the roasted duckling with which it came, the duckling served over black pepper porcini polenta with red current-syrah sauce.

Its chief competition for wine of the night came shortly thereafter: the smooth, purple, powerful 2004 Merryvale Beckstoffer Vineyard X Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, as fine as American wine – no, as fine a wine – as will ever share the able with a great steak. In this case, the latter was a balsamic-braised filet mignon with Roquefort whipped mashed potatoes and cabernet pink peppercorn demi-glaze.

The powerful, elegant Robert Mondavi’s 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is no piker either, with its lovely fragrance and its mixture of red fruit and earthy mineral. No wonder this wine was rated 98 by Wine Spectator magazine and 94 by Bacchus himself, aka Robert Parker. It was paired with a chunk of splendid simplicity: a chunk of pecorino Romano and a raspberry.

Dessert was far more complex, being a dark chocolate merlot gateau with bitter fudge and cocoa ganache paired with 2004 Ravenswood Pickberry Red, a Bordeaux blend from Sonoma.

The event, which Litras said will be the first in Café Margaux’s “Cellar Series”
 was a triumph. If you really love fine wines – if you find them interesting as well as delicious – do go to the next.

Café Margaux is located at 220 Brevard Avenue, Cocoa. Call 639-8343.

 

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