International Wine Fest 2009: live coverage of Caymus Vineyards at CinCin
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Karen Hamilton
March 24, 2009
Day 2 of this year’s Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival brings you more live commentary. Tonight’s revelry is a winemaker’s dinner at CinCin with California’s Caymus Vineyards.
Wine & Dine Agenda
The event brief is listed below for your perusal while I get my tech set up at CinCin:
Vancouver’s celebrated CinCin Ristorante and California’s iconic Caymus Vineyards will partner in an ingredient-driven menu expertly paired with an extraordinary portfolio of wines. Kristy Skrabec, Export Director for esteemed Napa Valley producers—the Wagner Family—will lead guests through a selection of their flagship wines: Caymus Cabernet and the notable “Special Selection”, the lively Conundrum proprietary blend, two distinctive chardonnays, and the exciting new portfolio of Belle Glos pinot noirs. Named in honour of Lorna Belle Glos Wagner, a co-founder of Caymus, these wines see black tea, black cherry and licorice on the nose, with flavours of tea, ripe cherry and cola on a lasting finish—the very essence of the vineyard. And CinCin executive chef François Gagnon’s multi-course menu will reach a hand over the 49th Parallel, sourcing from our local fishery, ranches and farms, promising “to marry the Napa to the Pacific coast” at this not-to-be-missed convivium.
The menu is nearly a novella. I shouldn’t have posted this on an empty stomach. My salivary glands are now in overdrive.
Executive Chef, Francois Gagnon
Chef Patissier, Thierry Busset
Restaurant Director, Ricardo Ferreira
Wine Director, Michael Mameli
Caymus Vineyards + Wines from the Wagner FamilyCanapes:
smoked albacore tuna
fingerling potato and creme fraichegrilled pacific octopus
chickpea friti and cilantroscallop tartare with perigord truffles
citrus and sea salted bread crumbstomato gaspacho
crostini, crispy shallots and cressServed with Conundrum, 2007
Amuse bouche:
house cured swordfish
meyer lemon, pistachio oil and purple basil
Mer Soleil Silver Unoaked Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands, 2007
Mer Soleil Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands, 2006morel and chanterelle mushroom cannelloni
truffle marsala sauce
Belle Glos, Clark & Telephone Vineyard Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley, 2007wood oven roasted rabbit
prosciutto wrapped saddle, sunchokes and rosemary gnocchi
Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2006wood fire grilled lamb
basil pesto, piperade and tomato confit
Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2000
Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2006lime mousse cake
lemon sorbet and strawberry sauce
Late Harvest Viognier, Santa Lucia Highlands, 2004petits fours
Live Twitter Feed
I’m trying out ScribbleLive, a live blogging service that integrates short blog updates with comments and responses from Twitter. Let me know if this was useful for this event.
Let the Feasting Begin!
6:30pm – reception and starters
I arrived at 6:30pm on the dot to an already buzzing lounge. Setting up shop inside the L-shaped bar with a glass of Caymus Conundrum 2007 keeping me company. More after I upload some prelim shots.
Joie and I found the perfect spot to station ourselves for free-flowing canapes. We agreed that the grilled octopus with chickpea friti was difficult to handle in one bite, and that the scallop tartare was the clear winner amongst its peers. We didn’t get the chance to try the Tomato Gaspacho, but at least two people were stalking the servers that pushed that item…it must have been noteworthy.
8:15pm – amuse bouche and first course down
Impressed by the Silver unoaked chardonnay hailing from the Mer Soleil vineyard. Chablis in style, this wine is high in acidity (almost effervescent) and mineral in character. Kristin Eddy of Caymus, who sits to my left, described how the Silver was aged in vats of limestone and concrete rather than the usual stint in stainless steel tanks. Such vats are normally used for reds; the Wagner family imports theirs from Burgundy, in fact.
Gotta run – the pinot’s been poured and I’m missing out on the second course!
9:15pm – 4th course in our bellies
Please allow me to gush about the 2006 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. If you’ve spoken with me before or have attended any of the Vancouver Wine Casual tastings that I’ve been to, you will already be aware of my aversion to bold reds.
Finding a cab that I can wholeheartedly endorse is a rare occasion. Lots of dried fruit in a dry, subtle style — raisin, blackcurrant, blackberry, you name it. It doesn’t punch you in the face with tannins (I must commend it for its demureness, really) and it embodies what neighbours at my table describe as “old vine Napa Cab”.
The rabbit that paired with it was pretty damn delectable, as well.
10:30pm – lamb devoured and dessert stealthiness
The fifth course, a wood fire grilled lamb with tomato confit, was paired with three different cabernet sauvignons from Caymus’ Special Selection series. I still have lots to learn in the arena of wine appreciation, and the idea of sharing discourse with the food and wine conoisseurs that sat around me was, to say the least, nerve-wracking. I needn’t have worried: the cabs were incredibly distinctive.
The 2000 called to mind gorgonzola, blue cheese; the 2006 presented cinnamon and candied berry. The 2008 was a bonus, taken out of the barrel on Monday as a teaser for this evening, evoked ratatouille to me and sundried tomato to Shelora Sheldon, who sat to my right. Shelora relayed that the plot on which those vines now grow was previously used for a tomato crop. I guess terroir really does come through to the glass!
Dessert was prettily presented with esses of strawberry sauce as backdrop to lime mousse cake and a lemon sorbet housed in its originating lemon. The combination was strong on citrus, much like the house-cured swordfish that started the multi-course tasting. Some found the dish too sweet; others overly tart.
I enjoyed both items, but not nearly as much as I did the espresso macaroons on the accompanying plate of petit fours. One scan of the tables and it was plain that the room was in consensus. Hardly a macaroon was left on any plate, while the other dainties lay relatively untouched. I expressed my sadness and not being able to horde any more for myself, so my enterprising assistant returned swiftly with a secret bag of 5 macaroons for me to take home. One was for my husband; the rest are charged with keeping my mouth happy as I put the finishing touches on this recap of another fantastic winemaker’s dinner.
CinCin Ristorante + Bar
1154 Robson Street | Downtown
(604) 688-7338
Make a reservation through Open Table
Visuals from the Road
Categories: Downtown, Events, Food, Restaurants, Wine
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