Tamber Bey Wines at Taste

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Met 4 others at Taste in Long Beach for a wine dinner. www.taste-wbk.com.  Parking is a real problem in this area. At least I was able to parking in a 30 minute zone and wait until 6:00 to get out of the car. No parking police today.  Winery tonight was Tamber Bay in the Napa area. It is a horse farm that makes wine on the side.  Dinner was sold out so the restaurant is very noisy. 

First course served was a Late Summer Stone Fruit Salad with peaches, figs, pulots, Burrata Cheese and arugula, basil and lemon oil.  Nice selection of fruit, all very good and just ripe enough. Paired with a 2016 Lizzy's Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc. 50% Acacia wood barrels and 50% stainless steel.  Not to my liking. A bit too "new zealandy" for me.  $ 32 a bottle.

Nest was a Carmelized Wild Caught Sea Scallops with lime buerre blanc, warm corn and Hatch chiles and cilantro. Excellent dish, scallops cooked perfectly and the corn salad was exceptionally good.  A 2016 unoaked  Younville Chardonnay was served. It was OK but again not to my palate. $36 a bottle.

Third course is a Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin, smoked grits, Earl Grey plum compote. Very good dish. the rub was good and the smoked grits were unusual and very good.  Paired with a 2014 Petaluma Gap, Sonoma Coast, Sun Chase Vineyard,  Pinot Noir. After a weekend of Sta Rita Hills pinots this was not cutting it for me. $70 a bottle.

Main course is a Tomato and Red Wine Braised Brisket, roasted garlic pommes puree, black pepper glazed carrots. Again a very good dish. Brisket had great flavor and was tender. Paired with a 2013 Rabicano Bordeaux blend.  Good wine. Finally found something I liked.  $50 a bottle.

Dessert was  a Dark Chocolate Roasted Beet Cake with blue cheese ice cream and Italian Saba.  Sounds strange but both were good. The cake was not overly sweet and the blue cheese was a very light flavor in the ice cream. They did go really well together The wine poured was a 2014 Yountville, Deux Chevaux Vineyard, Merlot.  Best wine of the night. $75 a bottle.

Altogether a very good dinner. But the restaurant still is a very noisy place and the parking is awful. I would do another wine dinner here but it won't become a regular stop on my way home which is too bad because the food is excellent.