Spear Wines at Bacchus Kitchen

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Made the trek up the 605 freeway to Duarte to meet up with Jolie . Then off to Claud & Co., Bacchus Kitchen in Pasadena for a wine dinner . www.bacchuskitchen.com.  A big change for me as this dinner is at 1:00 in the afternoon.  I liked the concept and Claud said they will do more of these afternoon Sunday dinners. Frees up the restaurant for their regular dinners. All of us at the table agreed that this is a good concept.

Spear Winery was pouring today. I am not familiar with Spear but will be doing  a tasting there in a few weeks when I go up to the Sta Rita Hills area.   Kat Gaffney the winemaker was in attendance along with Ofer Shepher  who not only is the owner of Spear but also co-owner of the Life Alert company.  Both very nice, personable people. 

We started out with appetizers in the main dining area. Bar set up for pouring the 2017 Estate Chardonnay to start us out. Table had various meats, cheeses and nibbles for us to start with while we waited for everyone to arrive. 

Dinner was held outside on the side patio area. One long table set up for 18 diners. Glassware sparkled in the sunlight, fresh flowers on the table, a nice setting for our "Sunday Brunch".

First dish was a hot and sour Dungeness crab soup with ginger, shitaki mushrooms, English peas and bamboo shoots.  Flavor was excellent if you were a ginger fan,  It was overwhelming for me.  I am not a ginger fan and this was overload. I could only eat a small amount of the broth, Others devoured it.   A 2017 Spear Estate Gruner Veltliner was paired with the soup. A very good airing and the Gruner was an excellent wine. Very small production of it and not every year will it be available.

Next was a Gold & Yellow Kiwi salad with passion fruit, pea shoots, fried panel cheese and a curry vanilla oil. The oil was dynamite in flavor.  A 2017 Spear Gnesa Vineyard Chardonnay was the wine selection. A nice clean chard.

Third course is a Smoked Lamb Loin with crispy cheese grits, mustard greens and Nueske bacon lardons. This is an applewood smoked bacon.. Very good flavor The Nueske products are available online. The lamb was cooked perfectly and had a nice light smoke flavor. Grits were creamy and the greens had a nice bitter tang to them,  Paired with a 2017 Spear Estate Pinot Noir. Wine was very light, bright fruit and color. Very different from most Sta Rita Hills Pinots. Ofer compared his to Clos Pepe in structure. We had interesting conversation on Clos Ppee and the dynamics that have been happening there. 

Up next was a Roulade of skirt steak with nopales and almond mole.. Good flavor but a bit overcooked for me. Not enough red to the meat.  Wine paired was a 2017 Spear Estate Syrah. A big syrah, bold flavors that held up to the skirt steak. A nice pairing/

Dessert is a Flan with almond cookie. They poured the 2017 estate Chardonnay with this dish and it paired much better than I thought it would.

A nice afternoon with a friendly group pf people. I like the concept of Sunday afternoon dinner. Since it is a trek for me to get there I appreciate being able to do it in the light of day.  Claud indicated he was doing another on June 30, I penciled the date in my planner as did Jolie