Perfectly Paired Dinner at Charleston Grill and a recipe for Olive Oil Ice Cream

Please welcome Mr. Bunkycooks (my husband Roger) for another guest post.  We recently attended a Perfectly Paired Dinner at the Charleston Grill at Charleston Place Hotel in South Carolina.  This dinner was one of the many special events that took place during the Charleston Wine and Food Festival March 1-4, 2012.  Since Mr. B has been a wine collector for many, many years and is, as he says, a “self-proclaimed connoisseur of wine”, I thought he would be the best person to write about this dinner.

Many of us enjoy a glass of wine (or two) in the evenings, whether by itself, with an appetizer or when paired with a meal.  Wines have their own unique character when we drink them by themselves and the flavors can become quite different when paired with food.  Many people know the basics of pairing certain wine grapes with certain foods, however it takes real skill to find the perfect match that complements both the wine and the food to make them equally extraordinary. 

Please enjoy this article as Mr. B takes us through his personal experience with the food and wine pairings from our Perfectly Paired Dinner at Charleston Grill.

On March 2nd we had the pleasure of participating in a Charleston Wine and Food Festival dinner at the Charleston Grill located in the Charleston Place Hotel.  The food was delightful, the ambiance perfect and the service was impeccable, as always.  With General Manager Mickey Bakst coordinating the dinner, you can always be assured that the evening will be perfect.  What made this dinner so memorable was the pairing of the carefully selected wines with the food that was lovingly prepared by Chef Michelle Weaver, Pastry Chef Emily Cookson and two guest chefs.

We all know that certain wines are obvious food partners.  Beef dishes are complimented by Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah.  Shellfish pairs well with the minerality of a Chablis and poultry with Burgundy or a lightly oaked French Chardonnay.  These wines certainly enhance the dining experience, but every once in a while, through planning or serendipity, you pair a certain wine with a certain dish and the combination is explosive.

That is what happened when wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent of Broadbent Selections brought some of his wines sourced from around the world to the Wine and Food Festival Perfectly Paired Dinner at Charleston Grill.

Bartholomew Broadbent and Rick Rubel (Sommelier at Charleston Grill) worked together to pair the wines for this dinner.  This evening we sampled his 2009 A.A. Badenhorst “White Blend” (Coastal Region) with the first course of Buttered Brown Rice and Florida Rock Shrimp from guest Chef Gabrielle Hamilton.  The white wine blend flowed well with the buttery sauce which included mushrooms and duck cracklings.

We then sampled the Quinto do Crasto “Superior” (Douro) 2009, a complex blend of grapes, with a chicken dish prepared by guest Chef Trevor Kunk.  Honestly, the Douro was too rich and complex and fruit forward to pair with the clean lines of the chicken with lardo.  We knew that both the food and the wine were outstanding in their own right, but diminished the experience when served together.

Then came the surprise of the night.  Rick Ruben and Bartholomew Broadbent chose Château Musar from the Bekaa Valley, 2001.  For those interested in history, Bekaa Valley is a high altitude region of Lebanon, outside Beirut .  Yes, Lebanon.  Many people may not know this but Lebanon is the birthplace of wine.  The first wines in the world were produced in Lebanon over 4000 years ago.  Bartholomew shared some of the history of the region and the grapes that are grown there today.

We sipped the wine and our reaction was mixed.  It was something like a Bordeaux and yet, similar to a Burgundy.  It had a chalkiness from the soil it was grown in and a nose of young, fresh red fruit with the oak from the French barrels it was aged in.  The wines tannins were smooth and the acids vibrant making it lighter in style and not jammy in taste.  To me, this was a very “odd” wine.  It reminded me of a Bordeaux blend grown in the soil of Lebanon and its structure said “drink me now” because there were insufficient tannins to carry it through a long cellaring. By itself I did not like this wine.

Then Charleston Grill’s Chef Michelle Weaver presented a Dry Aged Lamb with a Tarragon-Dijon Demi-Glace.  The lamb was aged 27 days. The aged lamb was denser and had a deeper and richer flavor than non-aged lamb.  The flavor lingered in your mouth.  Then I sipped the wine.  The wine exploded in my mouth with chocolate and berry flavors.  The mouth feel smoothed out and the the pungency of the lamb was lost in the berries and acid of the wine.  This combination brought out the best of both.

This was truly a spectacular pairing.  As a wine collector and self-proclaimed connoisseur of wine, I have consumed a lot of wine in my time, but seldom have I enjoyed a pairing more than the Musar and Dry Aged Lamb.  Bravo!

After such a wonderful pairing you ask, how can we top that?  The next course, a cheese course, of Petit Basque with Marcona Almonds, Fig Preserves and a Brioche Cracker, was paired with Broadbent’s Colheita (Madeira) 1996.  This wine was also served with the dessert of White Chocolate Cake, Meyer Lemon and Dark Chocolate Tart with Olive Oil Ice Cream.  These two courses were created by Charleston Grill’s Pastry Chef, Emily Cookson.

For those not familiar with Madeira, it is the wine that won the Revolutionary War.  Our founding fathers drank Madeira as a staple.  George Washington attributed the warmth of Madeira for his troops surviving the crossing of the Potomac River that cold Christmas night in 1776.  Ships captains stored casks of Madeira as ballast in the ships sailing from Portugal to America where the wine was eagerly purchased by  Americans like Thomas Jefferson.

Madeira is a fortified wine, like Port or Marsala wine, and is produced in a variety of styles from dry, that can be consumed by itself, to a sweet wine that is often paired with dessert.  Once again, it was the pairing of the wine and food that made this so spectacular.

We all talk about matching wine with food to bring out the best in both.  Charleston Grill, Bartholomew Broadbent and Rick Rubel brought this to the ultimate level.  I just wish they could bottle the technique because I would like to bring cases of that skill home with me.

Thank you to Mr. Bunkycooks for a well-written and informative article on our dinner and the wine pairings that made for a very special evening.

Pastry Chef Emily Cookson, of Charleston Grill, has shared her recipe for Olive Oil Ice Cream from our dinner so that I can share it with my readers.  I prepared this recipe and it tasted exactly like the ice cream we had that evening at the wine dinner.  It has a surprising flavor that most guests would not immediately recognize. 

The olive oil flavor is subtle and pairs well with many Mediterranean  flour or cheese desserts.  I can just imagine the flavor combination of a Cannoli complemented with  a quenelle of this luscious and creamy ice cream!  I used a nice olive oil with a subtle taste, Colavita’s First Cold Pressed Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.  If you use a stronger olive oil (such as a Turkish or Greek olive oil), it will be noticeable in the ice cream. 

This ice cream is perfect in small amounts to pair with other flavors for a dessert.  I suggest that you try some of your own wine and dessert pairings and see how it will impact the flavors of the dessert as well as a dessert wine.

Bon Appétit!

For more information on Chef Michelle Weaver and Charleston Grill and the 2012 Charleston Wine and Food Festival, please refer to the following articles:

Interview with Chef Michelle Weaver

Charleston Wine and Food Festival – Part One

Charleston Wine and Food Festival – Part Two