The Acacia Wine Dinner

As promised, I attended the Wine Dinner at Acacia last week with both BW and BD. We three enjoy such different things, I was looking forward to how a fixed menu would work for us. BW stuck with one wine through the night, an Aussie Shiraz, which is her bent. But BD and I went with the pairings as offered and found them all to be "spot on" as our buddy Luke would say. We started with the Celery Root Soup, a puree with pancetta and chives. This was a bit thin but still had a creamy texture which held up to the wonderful substance and flavor of a Burgundian Rosé Sparkler, the Michel Freres Cremant. I am deeply fond of the current trend towards dry pink wines. Don't ever assume that good rosé is sweet; the French make wonderful dry rosés.

Next was the salad course, and as we have discussed, any vinegar based salad dressing makes wine pairing difficult. Herbs and greens were joined by a piquillo pepper stuffed with goat cheese. The wine was Cluver's South African Sauvignon Blanc, which holds up against the balsamic as well as anything and was crisp and citrusy, providing a nice counterbalance.

The main course provided us a choice of Salmon or Grilled Sirloin. BD and I chose the salmon, which was pan roasted and accompanied by a sweet onion tart and a pecan sauce. The salmon prep was on target, moist and tasty, just enough carmelization to match the pecan sauce. The wine paired with this was a Santa Maddalena from Thomas Mayr. This is from Northern Italy along the Austrian border and was earthy but light, reminiscent of a good Pinot Noir from Burgundy. BW got the Sirloin with a potato and mushroom ravioli, and garlic sauce. She stuck with her aussie wine, but the pairing selected would have been Chianti Classico from Buondonno.

The service was impeccable, and I happily looked through the regular menu, reminding myself what a neat destination this is. It's back on my list, especially for weeknights and al fresco dining outside on the porch looking over Carytown. Julia from River City Cellars ( http://www.rivercitycellars.com/) was in attendance and had selected the wines. All are available at her shop, just a couple blocks west on Cary St.