Terlato Wines at Arte Cafe

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

First wine dinner of the year at Arte Café. All the wines are from Terlato's portfolio.  Good evening as one of the five us won a bottle of wine in the raffle.  Not only is the food good and the wine dinners are reasonably priced there are the raffle perks.

Started out with a Rigatoni pasta, smoked salmon, cream sauce, Romano cheese and mushrooms Good dish. Hearty for a cold night. Salmon was moist. Paired with a 2018 Terlato Pinot Grigio. Clean, crisp wine

Next is a Grilled shrimp skewer with mango and pineapple salsa and herbed rice. Shrimp are tender and cooked perfectly. The rice, salsa combo was interesting contrast to the shrimp. Wine was a 2017 Sanford,  Sta Rita Hills, Chardonnay.  Clean chardonnay, just a slight hit of oak. Several of us thought the chardonnay would have been better with the smoked salmon and the Pinot Grigio with the shrimp. We passed this information to the wine rep.

Third course is a Lamb meatball with Harissa, coucous, percorino and rosemary. Excellent dish. The harissa added so much flavor to the lamb. Lamb was moist  A 2015 Rutherford Merlot was the wine choice. A good merlot. Not my favorite varietal but this wine made my list

A Braised beef short rib with mild mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, mushroom gravy on polenta was served next. Great flavor, moist and tender. Paired with a 2016 Chimney Rock, Stags Leap District, Cabernet Sauvignon. Another good pairing

Dessert is a Crème Brulee with sliced strawberry and a pour of NV Kracher Beernauslese.  The grapes have been infected with "noble rot" hence making them super sweet.

Another good dinner at Arte Cafe. Richard has been bringing his game on quite a bit lately.  Looking forward to the Chinese New Years dinner on the 24th.