It was an evening of B's last night...that is wines that were produced by wineries starting with the letter B.
I stayed at a friends house in Middletown last night, so I wouldn't have to drive 1 hour in the morning to get to a 7:45am appointment. What great hospitality! When I arrived they had already started on a 2006 Brotherhood Pinot Noir. A glass was poured for me. It was good. Then we opened a Benmarl Baco Noir with dinner. The Baco is a very interesting wine. I do like it. A little smokey on the end. This Baco is grown at Slate Hill Vineyards where Benmarl is located. Baco is a variety that grows well in cooler climates.
After dinner we retired to the living room to do what every household in America was doing..watching election results. We did this with a bottle from my wine cellar that I had brought. A 2002 Baywood Reserve Merlot. It's a good thing I brought it...if I had waited another year, it would have been salad dressing. It had no tannins and had cherry on the taste with a strong black licorice on the end. One candy I don't like is licorice!! I can't let good wine go to waste, so it was finished by the time I fell asleep on the couch. (I was then woken up to retire upstairs to a bed that was waiting for me)
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A Dinner at Benmarl: An Extraordinary Evening
Tired of the usual bachelorette parties, the ones where you go into New York City, get drunk and dance on a bar, my girlfriends and I decided to plan an intimate dinner for 5, just the bride and the bridesmaids at Benmarl Winery in Marlborough, New York.
As we walked up to the winery, the white lights illuminated the rustic winery, where we would have our dinner. The door was open, beckoning us in. We entered to find a small table set in the tasting room, right in front of a wood burning stove, which fortunately was not burning given the unseasonably balmy weather we were having.
We seated ourselves, knowing the table had to be set for us as it was the only one around. The lights were dimmed and white lights twinkled about the room. Out hosts, Wendy, a food and wine pairing expert, and Bethany, the events coordinator at Benmarl greeted us. They would escort our taste-buds on a fanciful flight through the evening.
They offered us sparkling wine to start, but not wanting to seem too anxious and a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of the meal ahead of us, we accepted water. Wendy explained the menu and returned to the kitchen.
The next time she appeared, she served shrimp, stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, wrapped in pancetta and filo dough. She opened the sparking wine, announcing that it was a chardonnay based sparkling wine. I thought to myself (knowing my friends were thinking the same thing), but I don’t drink chardonnay. The sparkling chardonnay was light and crisp, nothing like the traditional buttery oaky chardonnays that leave a coating in your mouth. We dug in, eating and drinking every last bit, fearful of wasting any of the delightful combination.
Next, Wendy served a salad topped with panko crusted goat cheese and a muscat wine. The muscat was fruity with hints of orange and tangerine. It complimented the goat cheese fabulously. After, again, cleaning our plates and emptying our glasses, and yes, re-filling our glasses with the bottle that Wendy was kind enough to leave behind, we eased into our chairs and our conversation.
Wendy and Bethany brought out the main course: chicken in a buttery sauce with spinach, potatoes, carrots and squash, and the crus de gras of this course was the baco noir, a light to medium bodied peppery wine with hints of red cherry.
As the evening went on, my girlfriends and I glanced at each other in delight. The twinkling lights added to the magic of the evening. Never once did we wish that we were in the City on top of a bar.
The a molten chocolate cake with raspberry sauce served with Cassis, a sweet dessert wine, with hints of raspberries was the perfect and decadent end to the evening.
As we walked to our car, one of my girlfriends commented that it was the best meal that she ever had. Not to offend my mother, but I think I have to agree.
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