Monday, October 26, 2009

ENOLOGY's first wine dinner is uneven

Back in DC, we joined some friends Monday evening at ENOLOGY Wine Bar (www.enologydc.com) just up from the Cathedral, where we have always enjoyed the wine, charcuterie and cheeses in previous visits. This was their first wine dinner and sadly many things went wrong to create the most uneven evening we have had in a while.

The guest winemaker was SPENCER GRAHAM of ELIZABETH SPENCER Wines in Napa and I was excited about tasting many new wines, but the event was so heavily booked, the glasses were filled with barely 3 ounces for each wine with each course. We arrived to a crowded room and got a taste of an unexciting Butternut Squash Bruschetta that suffered from too much bread and not enough topping. The 2007 Mendocino SAUVIGNON BLANC was yummy and when they opened a 2008 I was shocked that it was the same wine as it was so much more grassy in the nose and citrus in the mouth.

We sat down with three fairly unfriendly strangers at two 4-tops pushed together so that two people had to sit at the table-seams making it quite crowded and almost impossible to get up. The entire room was like this and the event was clearly overbooked, especially for a first time attempt. If they had cut back on 20-30% of the guests, there would have been plenty of room (and WINE!). The first glass of CHENIN BLANC 2008 from Mendocino was poured and I fell in love with the dry vanilla toned wine with some latent spice, but we waited for almost 20 minutes before any food came and we had all finished our wine. The SCALLOP B.L.T. arrived with a huge scallop on Applewood Smoked Bacon, Truffle Aioli and sat on a small Brioche. The woman serving attempted to serve one dish over my head as there was no way to access the far side of the table. The scallop fell down my back and on my suede jacket! Need I say more. It was retrieved and the damage was minimal; I found the bacon when I got up later!

The Wine Director Adam came over after I begged them to call him; he was helping to plate in the kitchen for sure. He did apologize and we managed to get two more glasses of Chenin Blanc out of it. Our friend, Maria had also began to worry as she had told her mother/babysitter that she would be home by 830pm since the event began at 630pm and when she called earlier that day, they said it would be over by 8pm (which would have been impossible). It was now 740pm!

The ROCKFISH a la NAGE was an excellent piece of local rockfish with CRAB, Potato & Fennel that was simply swimming in a dreamy broth. The 2007 SONOMA COAST CHARDONNAY was also delightful, but when we started to get the rpice points on the wines, we realized the high 20's and 30's and 40's were quite steep.

The third course was a DUCK DUO which declared on the menu "Breast, Leg Confit-Apple Latkes, Chile Applesauce." I could not find the confit and we finally guessed there were some small pieces in the pancake which was quite good, but the breast was as dry, overcooked and unexciting, as could be with nary a spoon of sauce anywhere. The SONOMA COAST PINOT NOIR 2007 was another great wine, but again we knew it was not in the average shopping range.

The 4th plate was a superb rare to medium rare VENISON LOIN with Polenta, Mushrooms & Pomegranate Reduction served with the 2007 MENDOCINO GRENACHE, a huge earthy wine with lots of boldness, perfect for the dish.

We asked them to rush out our dessert to Maria could get home to nurse her infant and we were not impressed with the FUJI TART TATIN, a simple puff pastry with some apple and a scoop of DOLCEZZA Vanilla Gelato. A ROSENBLUM Lodi 2008 Late Harvest Viognier was served (I guess that Elizabeth Spencer does not make dessert wines) and we ran out the door.

We love Enology, but they need to rethink this approach if they want folks to return to these dinners in the future.