720 Cellars 2006 Pinot Noir with Roulade of Halibut

Next up on the docket at the Gathering Together Farm Wine Dinner was a Roulade of Halibut perfectly matched with the 2006 720 Cellars Pinot Noir. The halibut was wrapped in pork belly over israeli cous cous, with almonds and quince pasta. We all agreed that the almonds added a ton to the dish, and greatly enjoyed the pairing.

720 Cellars describes itself as a "gravity-flow winery to produce 1,000 cases of ultra-mega-double-secret-super-premium wine in 720 square feet of workspace." I suspect this is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek description, but what I do know is that 720 produces some quality wines in Philomath, OR. OK, so they're actually a small lot production winery that works out of a garage of sorts, but Nick does some equipment sharing with them and has been lucky enough to visit the facility and taste out of the barrel and has nothing but amazing things to say.

In describing the 2006 Pinot Noir, 720 says "The range and spectrum of this wine is a swirl of the bright raspberry and cherry end of the spectrum finishing with a foundation of darker elements of blackberries and cola." We found this to be a very traditional Oregon Pinot with a nice earthy nose and a bit sharp on the finish. It really worked with the halibut. Rick thought it was "really good", and this pairing reminded me how versatile Pinot Noir can be. With a production of only 400 cases, better pick some up while you can.

Next up on the journey of the wine dinner we'll look at short ribs with Seven Hills Vineyard Syrah and wrap up with Harris Bridge Winery Pinot Noir Dessert Wine and dessert. Beyond this series, we have a ton of exciting things in store for the blog. We have posts queued up for a delicous Col Solaire red wine, a review of a oregon wine book, and plans in the works for a Tour de Vino celebrating the Tour de France. It should be a great summer!

GTF Wine Dinner - Amuse Bouche with Emerson Pinot Gris

Continuing the series from the May 24, 2009 Gathering Together Farm wine dinner, following a rousing farm tour we quickly served the Amuse Bouche. While being served a mushroom soup with green garlic foam and brioche, a glass of 2007 Emerson Pinot Gris was poured for each diner. While some of my mushroom-averse compatriots less enjoyed this warm soup, I found it to be crisp and delicious.

Emerson Vineyards, a family-owned winery located in Monmouth, OR, produces Pinot Noir and Gris, Syrah, and Chardonnay while focusing on stewardship and sustainability as a core tenet. Elliot Johns, the winemaker, is a gradu

ate of Oregon State University's fermentation science program. Winery tasting notes on the 05 Gris note, "Emerson Vineyards Pinot Gris is silvery and brilliant. This vintage expresses gooseberry and honey aromas with flinty, minerally back notes."

We immediately detected the strong floral basket on the nose of this wine, with a crisp and tart lingering finish when consumed by itself. When paired with the soup, though, the finish was cut making a very refreshing and pleasant match. General consensus was very favorable for this wine, although Rick noted he would have enjoyed the riesling more with this course and Alyssa wasn't a fan of the whole course. Probably more of that is related to the aforementioned distaste for mushrooms.

The next course of the dinner didn't have a separate wine poured with it, and thankfully we made friends with the staff and ended up with an extra pour of the Gris to enjoy with the Salade Compose. The deconstructed salad of baby carrots, new potatoes, snap peas, Walla Walla onions, meyer lemon vinaigrette, and garden aiola also worked very well with the wine.

Keep your eyes on the blog for the next piece in the series, a look at the Roulade of Halibut matched with 720 Cellars Pinot Noir!