What: Combine great food with outstanding wine and you have a recipe for a great evening. That’s what wine lovers discovered at Cucina 503 when chef Edward Mendoza crafted a memorable meal to go with seven excellent wines from Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
The fun started when the wait staff brought us each a small pink can with a straw attached to the side. It had a pop top, so we gingerly opened it, worked on the straw like we had a kids’ juice box and took a sip.
It was a delightful sparkling wine, Sofia Blanc de Blanc. Mendoza called it a “good lunch box wine,” and it would be good for adult lunch boxes, or on a picnic, or on a boat. We had it with a tasty bruschetta made with cherry tomatoes.
“I was so happy to see even the men pop open the pink can and drink it,” said Eleanor Russo, Geogia manager for Coppola, who lead us through the wines.
The blend is Muscat, Pinot Blanc and Riesling, but it is not a sweet wine. It’s a good, dry sparkling wine. I think I liked it better drinking it out of the can instead of through the straw, but that’s quibbling. What a great way to deliver a glass of wine.
Named after Coppola’s daughter Sofia, the wine had a bright, refreshing flavor, full of peach and lemon, with lots of bubbles. It also is available in regular 750-ml bottles. Coppola created the wine for his daughter’s wedding.
The second course was roasted beet salad with duck confit, which everyone at our table loved. I don’t really beets, but I love duck, so I was happy. And my wife Teri got my beets, which were nice and sweet, so she was happy.
Two wines were paired with the salad, Director’s Cut Chardonnay Russian River 2013, and Votre Sante Pinto Noir 2013. The Chardonnay was my favorite wine of the night, buttery, with some citrus, green apples and spice.
One of the interesting things about the Chardonnay is it came in a Bordeaux bottle rather than a typical Burgundy bottle for Chardonnay. I wish more wineries would do that. Frankly, the rounded Burgundy bottles are harder to store in the cellar. Bordeaux bottles stack up better and don’t slide around.
Coppola did it because he wanted the label to be a film strip wound around the bottle, and that wouldn’t work with a Burgundy bottle. So he told his winery to just bottle it in a Bordeaux bottle. I’ve also had the Director’s Cut Zinfandel before and it is terrific.
The Pinot Noir was a great summer Pinot, light and refreshing. It had a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, made in the restrained Burgundian style rather than the fruit-forward California style.
Votre Sante is one of the Coppola labels, offering Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a red blend. For the Pinot, the winery blends fruit from Mendocino, Monterrey and Carneros. After fermentation the wine spends nine months in French oak barrels. It has a bright fruit flavor, very approachable, perfect with light meals, such as the duck.
Coppola made the wine for his father’s mother, who began a family tradition of toasting “a votre sante,” meaning “to your health,” each time she raised a glass.
For the third course we had scallops with succotash and peaches, but it was unlike any succotash I’ve ever had. The chef used black eyed peas with corn, and it was superb. The scallops were nicely seared, tender and full of flavor.
The wine pairing was a new wine from a winery in Geyserville Coppola hasn’t named yet. But the wine is called Two Arrowheads. It was a great blend of Viognier and Roussanne from Paso Robles. Rhone style blends are a specialty of the Paso Robles area, as the soil and weather combine to grown perfect grapes.
The wine has a beautiful aroma of peach, orange blossom and spices with delightful flavors of melon, peaches, citrus and vanilla.
The fourth course was a beautiful New York strip loin with summer mushrooms paired with Director’s Cut Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 from Alexander Valley. Ms. Russo explained the meaning of the label name.
“Francis says the director’s cut (of a movie) is what goes in the can,” she said. “The director’s cut picks up everything.”
The Cab is aged in oak 12 months, 50% French and 50% new American oak. It was an elegant wine with classic Cab flavors of berries, cassis and black cherries.
The fifth course was a flourless chocolate cake with truffle ice cream, a sinful treat. It was paired with the Manteo 2012 Red Blend, another wine from the as-yet-unnamed winery. (Somehow there is a North Carolina connection, because Manteo was the American Indian who befriended the first colonists at Roanoke Island–later known as the Lost Colony, because the people there disappeared. There also is a picture of Virginia Dare, the first colonist born in America, on the Manteo label.)
The wine is a full-bodied blend of Sonoma County Syrah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It is a well rounded, drinkable wine.
Ms. Russo said he likes Sonoma Cabs and blends because they are “more feminine, more fruit forward. They are more approachable and softer.”
This was a nice pairing with the incredible steak that was cooked perfectly. It had the good char on the outside with a red inside, a combination I have been able to achieve when I cook. It had a great flavor.
The evening full of high notes ended on an even higher note with a cheese plate that featured an Italian cow’s milk cheese with peaches in a Muscato, honey and Amaretto reduction with almond slivers. It was paired with a Late Harvest Semillon that is available only at the winery. It was another incredible wine, rich, smooth, sweet without being cloying. It was everything a good dessert wine should be.
All the wines except the Semillon were available at the Vineyard in Evans. Proprietor Roger Strohl was at the wine dinner to celebrate his birthday.
Mendoza said he planned to offer wine dinners every six weeks or so. If they are anything like this first one, they will be a huge success.
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