Members of Dan Club wine lovers gathered
for a meeting to discuss the matching of wine to food. The meeting was
facilitated by Adam Montefiore and David Bar-Ilan (Tulip Winery). The heart of
the event was a guided tasting of 13 fine wines from leading Israeli wineries,
served with the dishes of Chef David Biton.
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| "On Taste and Smell" for Wine Lovers at the King David Hotel |
The Dan Hotel chain organizes
wine meetings for club members. A previous meeting took place at the Dan Acadia
Hotel in the wine bar "Accad". This is the second meeting of the wine
lovers. After an aperitif served in the hotel lobby, we entered the hall and
sat around elegant tables laid with countless wine glasses. On this occasion,
we met the other participants of the event. They told us that they came to
Jerusalem especially to participate in the event. We enjoyed their company and
shared some experiences and impressions of the tasting during the evening.
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| Elegant Setting |
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| Table Laid |
The meeting was divided into two
parts. In the first part, Adam Montefiore (Israeli Wine Experience and Jerusalem
Post) lectured on the matching of wine to food. In the second part, David
Bar-Ilan (Tulip Winery) presented us with the wines and described them. Then,
there was a guided tasting and a talk about each round, along with dishes that
the hotel chef David Biton prepared and presented.
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| Chef David Biton |
What Goes with What – Matching Wine to Food - a lecture by Adam Montefiore
First of all, to break myths, Adam
has a motto "Match the wine to the diner, not to the dinner," and
there is something about it – as the saying goes - "There’s no accounting
for taste and smell". We all want food and drinks (and of course wine)
that we love.
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| Adam Montifiore |
There is a lot of theory behind
matching food and wine. From Adam's lecture I chose several, higher-level,
less-obvious principles. In a nutshell, this is what we heard from Adam:
Rule of thumb: Drink what you
love.
Match the wine to mood and
location - light for the beach, heavy for a holiday meal.
Light meal with light wine, heavy
meal with rich wine. The same goes for the wine’s body.
Also match secondary flavors of
dressing. You can adjust and add or strengthen the sauce.
Matching goes well with the type
of cooking - cold food or short cooking - gentle wine. Long, high-temperature
cooking - wine with high alcohol content. Cooked/steamed/microwave food -
relatively light wine.
In terms of order of the wines -
drink dry before sweet, white before red, light before heavy, young before aged,
simple before complex.
If you are drinking a
particularly luxurious wine, eat simple food without complex sauces, herbs and
spices so that the food tastes will not take over and you will enjoy the wine.
Adam told us how he tasted Chateau Lafite 1947 with a blunt white fish without
a sauce served to him.
In the lecture we received a lot
of specific examples from Adam Montefiore.
Guided Wine Tasting
The tasting was led by David
Bar-Ilan. The wines were served in three rounds - 4 for first course, 4 for
second and 3 for dessert. David presented each wine and its winery and we were
asked to taste the wines before the dish arrived, and then together with the
food, and then formulate an opinion on the wine - how it feels to us as is and
along with the dish with its tastes. This is the place to note that there was
no unequivocal opinion of the tasters about the wines in general and that our
choice has changed with the food. Here is the menu (Hebrew), note that that the vintage
is different than in the menu, the correct vintage is in the text.
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| David Bar-Ilan - Tulip Winery |
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| Wines tasted |
Aperitif
Golan Heights Winery, Rosé,
2010. Served at the lobby, the wine is most similar to Champagne.
Aperitif
Wines at the King David Wine Bar
First round
Bartenura, Moscato, NV
Tulip, White, 2014
Golan Heights Winery, Yarden,
Odem Chardonnay, 2016
Gush Etzion, Lone Oak, Pinot
Noir, 2014
Appetizer: crispy tuna
Crispy tuna in roasted fish
sauce, smoked anchovies and Wakame seaweed, roasted Kohlrabi cream. The dish
included Shimagi mushrooms and herbs. This is raw fish with slightly sour and interesting
flavors which is an impressive and delightful chef's dish.
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| Tuna |
The wine I liked best on the
first round was the Pinot Noir, but along with the fish, this changed and I
preferred the White Tulip that contained 70% Gewurztraminer and 30% Sauvignon
Blanc. I am not a big fan of Sauvignon Blanc and I really like Gewurztraminer and I found the combination excellent - fresh
and acidic, ideal for such a fish dish.
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| Wines poured |
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| Tasting |
Second round
Tulip, Net Sauvignon Blanc, 2017
Chateau Maime, Rosé, 2016
Maya, Mare Nostrum, 2014
Segal, Unfiltered Cabernet
Sauvignon, 2013
Second course: duck "Rossini"
Grilled duck breast, apple
vinegar and bitter almonds, Jerusalem artichoke. A beautiful dish that tastes heavenly
and dissolves in the mouth with a silky Jerusalem artichoke cream.
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| Duck |
At the beginning, the wine I
liked was the Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon (90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10%
Merlot, aged nearly two years in oak barrels) that won compliments at our table
from other diners as well. With the dish tasting, I switched my preference to Mare
Nostrum of Maya, which is a blend of Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Dorif, that was
aged for a year in French oak barrels.
Third round
Five Stones, David and Goliath,
2016
Tzora, Shoresh of 2016
Golan Heights Winery, Yarden,
"Heights", 2014
Dessert: Delicacies
Pineapple, macadamia and Louisa
nuts and. petit foursFirst, this dessert is delicious! Chef David Biton says
that he used the vacuum to press the pineapple, and the result is brilliant! The
dessert was not too sweet and tasted heavenly! The petit fours were also exceptional.
I would not have guessed it was non-dairy - it was so delicious!
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| Pineapple dessert |
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| Petit fours |
The wine of Tzora was excellent
but did not fit with the dessert. I found that the Five Stones was the right
wine with the Pineapple dessert. It contains Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc
and has a balanced and pleasant acidity that goes well with the fruity dessert.
The “Heights” from Golan Heights is extremely sweet, you have to drink it extra
cold, almost frozen, and perhaps as a substitute for dessert - but I think it's
great!
Finally
Tulip, Black Tulip, 2016
This was a bonus tasting that
David Bar-Ilan offered us. He pulled it out of the barrels before the event and
we tasted it together. I loved it very much, although David says he will leave it
to age more to fine tune it. I'm sure this wine will be a great success; It is
already excellent!
At the end of the event, Haim
Spiegel, the food and beverage manager of Dan hotels who is the spirit behind
all these logistics, offered the participants to purchase some of the wines
that we tasted at the discount prices that he buys them.
The event was another great
initiative for Dan Club customers, and it only cost NIS 155 per person, a
bargain! You might want to follow Dan's publications for future events.
Information
Disclosure: I was a guest of the
event.
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