A bit of a delayed post on sampling the winter menu back in January. It continues to be wonderful all around in terms of the local ingredients, the flavours of the dishes, and the warm service. We were 30 minutes late due to a snowstorm and traffic, but they gave us no issue and didn’t rush us on a Friday night.
We started with a glass of Cava, Paco Molina, Penedès, Spain - crisp, bready notes, and a bit of apple. We then split an excellent pairing that started with a Cremant de Jura, 100% Chardonnay, Baud - nicely yeasty.
The first course featured lightly poached lobster, yellow beets, beet purée with turmeric, raw shaved kohlrabi, sour cherries preserved in the summer, gooseberry juice, homemade chili pepper dust. Cold-weather veggies with hints of the summer and some nice acid to balance the richness of the lobster.
Next pairing was a Cabernet Franc from the Loire that we missed the details on. It had some carbonic maceration and hefty enough tannins to pair with the lamb course, which featured skewer of heart, liver, and shiitake, plus a rutabaga and liver mousse, and a deep fried bit of red dulse on top. It also included a croquette with sourdough starter and braised lamb inside, wax pepper on top, and a side of lamb broth and sassafras. So much wonderful lamb variations.
The same farmer for the lamb also grows rye, which was made into a gorgeous sourdough, decadently brushed with lamb fat and served with sheep’s milk cheese and black currant jam.
The 3rd pairing was a Moravian Riesling from Martin Vajcrer, Znojmo-Jatoym. 2023. It had spent so much time on the lees to the point of the complexity of a skin contact wine, plus the usual Riesling characteristics. It went nicely with a dish of sweet pan-roasted carrots, on top of more carrots julienned in conserva, plus local peanuts, dried tomato paste, and sumac powder. A great vegetable dish.
Next up was an Australian Shiraz by Cooke Brothers, Greenock, Barossa Valley, 2022. Nice plum and espresso, not overwhelming tannins. We expected this big wine to go with a big meat dish, but instead we had a beet, cooked in red wine, dried overnight, smoked and rehydrated in beet juice, with magnolia wood and buds (a little clovey), mustard, spinach, arugula and lettuce, and shallots pickled in magnolia vinaigrette. Very earthy and went surprisingly well with a heftier wine.
Pairing #5 was a Pinot Noir from Bourgogne, La Soeur Cadette (missed the vintage). Very earthy, mushroomy, with some cherries and cranberries. It went with Linton pork loin and leg, pork reduction with prosciutto and mussel purée, smoked endive, sunchoke chips, and two mussels. The juicy, smokey endive held this dish together and counterbalanced the quite fatty pork.
The 6th course was the most remarkable. We were poured an apple cider from Normandy that we also missed the details on. We were then each given a single Sieglinde potato in foam of pork fat emulsion and calamus (sweet flag) herb. The simplicity of the dish allowed you to appreciate every remarkable flavour and texture of the components.
Our last pairing was Barbetto Madeira Rainwater Reserva, redolent of caramel and almost a dessert itself. The actual dessert was a layer cake with local quince tarte tatin on top, puff pastry of einkorn whole wheat, rose and apple butter, dacquoise, with Niagara hazelnuts, honey custard, and rose petal oil over. Nothing was too sweet and the rose-quince pairing was remarkable.
We need to go back more often outside of patio season.
