Daou Wines at Arte Cafe

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

A good crowd tonight for the Daou dinner. Not sold out as the last two dinners probably because of the price. Tonight it is $59. Last dinner was $45. A few empty tables.  Saw eleven people that I knew.

We started out with a pour of Chardonnay. Too oaky for me. I waited until the Poached Butterfish came and sipped the wine with the food. It did cut the oak a bit but not enough for me. Poured the rest of my wine into Doug's glass. The rep talked about how California Chardonnay is full of flavors that people love, butter, oak etc., He didn't bother to ask my opinion about that. I like my wines to show fruit not wood. The fish was very good. Still moist on the inside. Served with corn, leeks and baby bok choy.

Up next was an Herb Crusted Ribeye Medallions.  Medallions to me are small pieces of meat the same size and look medallioney. This was just thin sliced prime rib. Quality was good and flavor was excellent. Sat on a bed of mashed cauliflower and shitake mushrooms. There was a slight bite to the demi glaze and we could never figure out what it was but gave a nice flavor to the dish.  A Daou  2016 Cabernet Sauvignon was the wine selection. It was a good cab but cab's are not my favorite wine so it is lost on me.

Third course was a Lamb Loin with Japanese eggplant puree, sundried tomatoes and sesame cake. I did not even take a bite of this. I had them pack up half of my beef because I just could not shove any more food into my stomach. So the lamb got packed up also. The lamb did look good and I will have in a few days for dinner at home.   A Daou "Pessimist" (blend of syrah, petite syrah, zinfandel and tannant) wine was paired. Hope they tasted good together. The wine was my favorite of the night. A nice well balanced, lush mouth feel almost velvety. 

All the wines were estate wines not their higher end selections. The prices offered tonight were not that great of a deal. Total Wine and Costco have better deals on these estate wines.

Dessert was called Festive Fruit Napoleons. Mixed berries in a cream sauce on top of a couple of pieces of over cooked puff pastry which was hard to cut with a side of a spoon. Ok but not anything to get over excited about. But it was a light , refreshing dessert.

So a decent dinner with decent wines. Company was good. And the weather had cooled enough so dining was pleasant. Arte Cafe has the back room that is totally cool all the time and the front room has issues.