Lewis Cellars Wine Dinner at Jar

We're very excited at Jar to be starting up a new series of wine dinners. Occurring the third Tuesday of every month, they will feature new dishes created by Suzanne and Preech, as well as themed wine pairings. The setting offers intimacy with a table set for a mere fourteen people in the side dining room. The beverage selections are, of course, provided by yours truly.

For our inaugural dinner, Suzanne and I offered a menu showcasing some of the wines from Lewis Cellars. While known for their extracted and monstrously endowed reds, I took the opportunity to show as many of their whites with Suzanne's menu. Four courses were prepared following a light amuse.

As guests arrived, we poured the Terres Secretes 'Blanc de Noirs' Brut NV Cremant de Bourgogne. This is a terrific, crisp sparkler that offers wonderful value for the money. Red fruit, apple and minerality with a touch of sweetness noticable on the palate. This wine also carried over as the pairing for Suzanne's Roasted Tomato Soup with Smoked Mozzarella, which served as the Amuse Bouche for the evening.

The first formal course was a Dungeness Crab Salad with Watermelon and Sugar Kiss Melon. A jalapeno-lime vinaigrette and some mint made me think of Sauvignon Blanc, which thankfully, Lewis just began making last year. The Lewis Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2009 was very pretty, offering tropicl notes, some percievable oak tones, citrus flavors and a well-done California-style SB. I much prefer this bottling to their Reserve which sees more oak and seems more like Chardonnay than SB.

I played around a bit with the second course pairings. Suzanne serves Cod and Cod Cheeks with Umbrian Lentils. I desperately wanted to show the Lewis 'Vin Gris of Syrah' Rose 2010, of which there are only 2 barrels made. But also, I wanted an appropriate pairing for the dish which might be better found in their 2008 Napa Chardonnay. So - we poured both and had a side-by-side. I explained to the group that I agonize over these things down to the last minute. The Chardonnay seemed to be the favorite, but with the summer weather finally beginning to show in Los Angeles, it's always a good opportunity to remind people that it's rose season again.

For the third and final savory course, Suzanne and Preech grilled a massive Dry-Aged Ribeye and served it with some Arugula Salad and Jar's famous French Fries. Finally, I got to break out the wines Lewis is known for: the 2008 'Alec's Blend' and the 2008 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Tasting these wines side-by-side really exemplified the style: Rich, lush, spicy and plushly textured. The Cabernet had an amazing roundness and softness that I can't recall from their wines. While massively endowed, it caresses the palate at the same time. The Alec's, a blend of mostly Syrah with Merlot and some Cabernet, showed soe of the typical Syrah bacon, pepper and florality, but was much more fruit-focused and served as a good contrast to the Cabernet.

Dinner was wrapped up with coffees and an amazing Peach Pie a la Mode from Pastry Chef Sandra Bustamante who continues to amaze me with her incredible execution of classic desserts. I had to take one of these amazing pies home to enjoy that evening. It was pretty spectacular.

It's amazing to see the reponse from people who are experiencing Lewis wines for the first time. Many of these guests were Jar fans, but weren't familiar with the winery. The hedonism and pure abandon one can experience when drinking these wines is wonderful. They're not what I would necessarily call intellectual wines, but they are wildly delicious and balanced for wines of such size. Everyone at the table seemed to respond to that aspect as they sipped down the last of all the wine in the decanters.


I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming series of these events. I've got some interesting candidates in the queue for the coming months. In addition, we are looking at regional themes, varietal focus, and maybe even a beer dinner (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Russian River Brewery...) In any case, it's going to be a lot of fun to introduce these beverages to Jar's cuisine in this format. I hope you can find a date to join us to experience it firsthand.