Chateau Ste Michelle Wine Dinner at the Hyatt

Friday, June 1, 2011

Headed down the road tonight for a wine dinner at the Hyatt Huntington Beach. At least this was close for me. Not a lot of driving.

We arrived about 6:10 and had the mandatory valet parking. 3 hours validation with dinner and then $19 flat fee after. They really ave a captive audience this way. Any wine dinner with a wine rep goes over 3 hours. Especially when they have a reception at 6:30 and seating for dinner at 7. Food doesn't get to you for a least 20 minutes. So now we are over an hour into the 3 hour validation. But the best part was since the restaurant didn't stamp the ticket when I turned it in they waived the parking fee. Hope everyone else in the group got that break. So $5 to the valet and I was happy.

So we arrived and the hostess started to take us outside for the reception. It was cold & windy. June is always this way at the beach, Don't know what the hotel was thinking.We ended up inside and they brought our bubbly and appetizers to us. That was a real nice gesture on their part.

About 7 o'clock we were ushered into the Californian Room for dinner. There were 11 of us and we had a huge square table with a lip on it. Some people had a hard time finding an area to get their legs under the table. Mine was about even with the ledge so I could not slide all the way in..Really a dumb table for dining.

Chateau Ste Michelle wines were featured tonight.

We started out with a Seared Scallop with a deconstructed Waldorf salad and curry oil. The scallop was excellent and the curry oil led a nice bite to it. The could have left the salad off. This was served with their 2005 Luxe Brut bubbly.

A Watercress & Zucchini Soup with lemon oil & pecorino was next . This really was good.. A 2010 Horse Heaven Sauvignon Blanc was paired with this dish. It was an OK pairing. I did not care for the wine at all.

Third course was a Frisse Salad with a poached cage free egg, asparagus, natural bacon (as apposed to  laboratory made ???) simple vinagrette and herb crouton. Wine was an 2009 Indian Wells Chardonnay. Too oaky for me and it also clashed with the vinaigrette.  Oaky wines need a fat to cut the oak.

Fourth course was a wild caught King salmon, shaved fennel salad, heirloom tomatoes and white anchovy pesto. The pesto was excellent to bad their was no more than a drop of it. Salmon was good but nothing special. Paired with a 2008 Ethos Chardonnay. Another wine I did not drink. It was heavy oaked . The salmon was a little fatty but not enough to cut this massive oaky wine.

Fifth course was a Spiced spring lamb loin with a puree of english peas, feta & mint. The rub on the lamb was very good. They could have left out the mint in the pea puree.  Paired with A 2009 Canoe Ridge Merlot and a 2008 Cold Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. I did prefer the cab over the merlot.

Dessert was a Riesling poached baby pear with gorgonzola gealto, pine nut shortbread cookie. Served with a 2010 Harvest select rielsing. Pear had good flavor but was undercooked. Gelato was very good and the cookie was good. I did not like the wine.

Dave & Judy got all my wines that I did not like so they were happy. Glad I had 5 glasses of bubbly to make up for the wines I wasn't in to

Two people at our table do not eat seafood so the restaurant subsituted other dishes for them which was accommodating but they did not coordinate the serving well. We were well into finishing out dish before they got theirs. This is not good. Lack or something in the kitchen.

All told this was an OK dinner especially for the price. I did not expect the wines to be more than they were. But it sure makes you appreciate the quality of the food at Delius and their expertise in wine pairing. 

The Hyatt is planning on a few more wine dinners and I would go back and try them again. Their service was excellent. Much better than Arte Cafe where I have gone for a few wine dinners.