And what a meal it was!

Monday night was our first winemaker dinner. A cozy group of 15 started out with a tasting examining a few of the wines that we'll be showing on Sunday at the 2nd Independent Merchants Fair at Vinopolis. I threw in an exotic and managed to stump all the stars. It was a Le Petit Chambord 2000 Cour Cheverny which is made with the romorantin grape. There are only 42 hectares of the grape grown in the world so no one had ever had it before. It's not for everyone but I was pleased that the general concensus was that the wine was delicious.

Then on to dinner. Sonia Blech outdid herself with a marvelous meal. We started with a seafood risotto that was brimming with all manner of shellfish. The New Zealand Gravitas Sauvignon Blanc that accompanied it was a great match. Then on to the truly fabulous main course - wild boar with porcini mushrooms. This was just about the highlight for me. Lots of rich flavours and a perfect blend with the Produttori 1999 Barbaresco.

As usual Sonia's cheese course was a stunner. She had 7 or 8 different cheeses, some of each type - goat, sheep, cowsmilk, soft, hard, blue. It was a real cheesehead's delight. The il Sciorio Barbera d'Asti that was served with it was good with everything but particularly beautiful with the aged parmesan. Yummy!

Then Sonia AGAIN outdid herself with a terrific dessert combining two of my favourite foods - hazelnuts and chocolate. The Late Harvest Viognier from Rosenblum that went with it was also a hit. Got lots of orders for that.

Coffee, petits fours and a great Malaga Pedro Ximenez finished the meal. We all waddled out very, very happy.