I recently attended the 2nd (1st if crossing over to the New Year counts as #1) Ultimate BYOB at Vino. Ultimate BYOB?! What’s that?
Chuck Furuya occasionally hosts BYOB dinners at Vino where a new 3 or 4 course menu is prepared and guests are asked to bring 1 bottle of wine to pair with one of the dishes – Chuck usually makes general recommendations for each dish. Normally participants are asked to bring bottles in the $30 range to make it fair for each participant (you don’t want cheapskates sneaking in Yellowtail). However for the “Ultimate BYOB”, the sky’s the limit on the value of the wine – this is where you bring that bottle you’ve been saving for several years.
The evening’s menu read like this (along with Chuck’s suggested wine pairings):
First Course
Chuck Furuya occasionally hosts BYOB dinners at Vino where a new 3 or 4 course menu is prepared and guests are asked to bring 1 bottle of wine to pair with one of the dishes – Chuck usually makes general recommendations for each dish. Normally participants are asked to bring bottles in the $30 range to make it fair for each participant (you don’t want cheapskates sneaking in Yellowtail). However for the “Ultimate BYOB”, the sky’s the limit on the value of the wine – this is where you bring that bottle you’ve been saving for several years.
The evening’s menu read like this (along with Chuck’s suggested wine pairings):
First Course
Kabocha & Ricotta Cheese Agnolotti
with Dungeness crab & tarragon brown butter
suggested wine: aged Chardonnay, French Chablis, Vouvray
Second Course
Barolo & Wild Mushroom Risotto
with house kiawe smoked kurobuta pork belly, grilled Waialua asparagus
suggested wine: lighter reds…..Pinot Noir, Italian Sangiovese
Entree
Seared “Dry Rub” Short Rib
with grilled radicchio, Pitt Farms baby carrots, parsnip puree & red wine reduction
suggested wine: Big Red, preferably aged
Dessert
“Sticky” Toffee Pudding
with vanilla ice cream & toffee sauce
suggested wine: aged Sauternes/Barsac or Muscat Beaumes de Venise
Normally the wines are “blinded” so no diner knows what the other has brought (labels can influence your personal evaluation of each wine); however since most of the participants on our table knew each other, we preselected what everyone brought just so we didn’t end up with 8 wines for the appetizer and none for the second course. Since Mr B usually has brings aged Jobard white burgundies (and I have none) and since several wines were already designated for the Entrée course, I brought a couple of wines for the 2nd course and the Dessert course.
My selections were a 1985 Veuve Cliquot Rare Rose Champagne, 1997 Altesino Vendemnia Brunello di Montalcino and a 1997 Fratelli Ravello Giachini Barolo for the 2nd Course (Chuck suggested I move the Barolo to the Entrée course) and a 1996 Banyuls Clos de Paulilles Rimage and 2001 Chateau Laufaurie-Peyraguey Sauternes for dessert. Didn’t you say 1 bottle per course? Yes I did but since the Mrs and I reserved a room at the Hawaii Prince and cabbed it to Vino, we decided to share several bottles of wine (and the dessert wines were only 375ml).
Wines paired with the 1st course included:
1991 Jobard Mersault-Genevieres
2004 Granges des Peres Blanc
1998 Clos du Bourg Vouvray
Meo-Camuzet Hautes-Cotes de Nuit
Cherisey Mersault-Blagny 1er Cru
My favorite pairing was the Jobard Mersault and the Clos du Bourg Vouvray – mind you, all of the wines were great but Jobard highlighted the sweetness of the crab and the acidity of the Vouvray balanced the richness of the brown butter sauce.
Other than my selections, other wines paired with the 2nd course included:
2002 Bouchard Gevrey Chambertin
2004 Castello dei Rampolla Sammarco
Castello di Brolio
1986 Chevillon Les Roncieres Nuit Saint Georges
I hate to toot my own horn but I think the aged Veuve Rose with its rich fruit and mushroom qualities were a perfect foil to the salty rich pork belly, creamy risotto and wild mushroom. It shows that Champagne also pairs nicely with food. The Bouchard was also a very good pairing with the dish.
For the Entrée course, the wine pairing included:
2003 Chateau Grand-Pontet St Emilion Grand Cru
1999 Jasmin Cote Rotie
1996 Noel Verset Cornas
1996 Granges de Peres Rouge
I’m partial to Verset Cornas and this wine was no exception. An immediate hit of olives, old leather and slightly charred meat complemented the beef. Great on its own, great with food! The Fratelli Barolo and Granges de Peres also were complementary to the beef.
Finally for the dessert course, along with my two dessert wine selections we also had:
2001 Chateau Haut-Peyraguey
2003 Chateau Guiraud
Because the three Sauternes were still relatively young (2001 and 2003 were exceptional years and these wines won’t hit peak for at least another 10 years), the fleshy dried fruit qualities balanced the rich toffee dessert. The only disappointment was that C’s 2001 Chateau Suduiraut was inadvertently served to the table next to us so Vino sent us the 2003 Chateau Guiraud (the Suduiraut was probably a LOT better)!
All in all, another great BYOB. I can’t wait for the next one!
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