I’m aware this post is a bit overdue, but better late than never right? First of all, the only wine I was planning on drinking this new year was the bottles of champagne that were to be popped in New York City where I was supposed to spend 4 days ringing in the New Year. As all perfect plans tend to do, my plans fell through, on the day I was supposed to leave. What’s a girl to do two days before NYE with no plans? Well, visit localwineevents.com of course. I found a few parties, but the one that stood out was a six course wine dinner coupled with hotel stay in Jeffersonville Indiana.  Why Indiana? I thought the same thing until I saw that the Bristol Bar and Grille was home to a Master Sommelier named Scott Harper.

Master Sommelier, Scott Harper

Scott was very pleased to hear that I was a wine writer and was extremely knowledgeable and straight forward with the dinner guests. I only received a few questions from dinner patrons regarding the wine and I was very impressed. The dinner consisted of a nice mix of white a red wines including a couple of very sweet wines.Harper wanted to include wines from all the wine regions he has traveled to around the world, the wines he chose were expertly paired with very diverse courses created by Chef Richard Doreing. We sampled everything from jumbo shrimp corn dogs to petit beef wellington to a dessert of a chocolate flight complete with a Pouderoux truffle and chocolate mousse in an edible chocolate espresso cup.

the menu

My favorite pairing of the evening was tempura fried goat cheese with quince preserves coupled with a Gewurztraminer from Andrew Rich in Columbia Valley, Washington. This was our last wine poured as it needed to be chilled. It came in a small bottle which brought to mind an ice wine, and I was expecting the same flavor profile. I’m  used to Ohio Gewurtztraminers, and  I was pleased with the subtle differences in this particular Gewurtz. It’s bouquet was heavy on honey, and almost smelled thick like honey. The mouth feel of Rich’s creation was almost carbonated in the way it popped with my food, much lighter on the palate than I had expected, and not as much like an ice wine. Overall the wine was rich and sweet on the finish, the sweetness was offset by the goat cheese and preserves. A very impressive pairing.

Thinking the Gewurtztraminer pairing could not be topped, I was even more surprised with Domaine Pouderoux from France’s Maury region. This wine, paired with dark chocolate creations was made from 100% grenache grapes on 100 year old vines. Looking at the wine list I was wary as to how this grenache would fare against chocolate. Once again I was surprised by the depth and flavors of the wine. It’s nose was heavy with dark chocolate, it reminded me of something I had tasted before but I still cannot put my finger on it. The richness of this wine rounded out our dinner pefectly. We finished up around 11:30 and went back to our suite to ring in the New Year with a bottle of bubbly. Gloria Ferrer, blanc de noirs, and you better believe I wore the same dress I had planned on wearing to the MTV New Year’s party.

A.B.S. dress and Steve Madden Stilettos

Here’s to many great wines in 2010!