1618 Wine Pairing
If wine didn’t have calories, I’ld be drinking it with every meal, well maybe not breakfast. I love sipping it all by itself whether I’m on our patio or in a cafe. However, when combined with food, it makes any meal a little better. So when a restaurant has a wine pairing option, I always try it. You get to sample new wines and the restaurant generally knows their food well enough to know what wine is perfect with each dish. Also these meals are generally small portions so you can sample several different menu options. I’ve also been to a few wine tastings hosted by an individual vineyard. We have discovered some of our favorite wines this way but sometimes the food is not quite as good as the wine. The perfect combination would be our favorite restaurant and a great vineyard.
1618 Seafood Grille is our all-time favorite restaurant in Greensboro. We go as often as we can justify. Our girls are not big seafood lovers so they will generally get a non-seafood item, and I can promise you they are as good if not better than the seafood. We haven’t found better seafood any place we have traveled. So when Mike heard about a wine pairing that 1618 was hosting for Gundlach Bundschu vineyard, I was in.
The wine pairing was held at 1618 Wine Lounge which is a great place to go to sample wines and try out some appetizers. The event was held in the back room which had space for about 25 people. It was a small space which allowed us to get to know our table mates and chat with several folks we knew at other tables. The first thing we learned about this wine was how to pronounce it with this cute little device they have on their literature and on the wine cork. Think of a gun and a lock, then a bun and a shoe, easy. Katie Bundschu was there to talk about this very old vineyard that is still a family business. I will refer you to their website for details as my memory is a little fuzzy, it was a wine tasting dinner after all. While not a wine expert by any means, I understand that they have chosen to make less wine but at a higher quality. We will be including it in our wine selections in the future. I love supporting family businesses.
The wine was wonderful and we came home with a few bottles of our favorites and a connection to a new vineyard. Our favorites were their 2012 Chardonnay, the 2013 Gewürztraminer and the 2012 Pino Noir. The folks at 1618 did an amazing job with five small courses. We started with curry rubbed flounder with a mango puree and pineapple ginger relish. The second course was fennel crusted salmon with a crispy espresso potato cake. Both were very small and delicious. No one at our table had ever had anything but seafood at 1618 so they were somewhat surprised at to how delicious the crisp braised lamp shank and the cocoa rubbed pork tenderloin were. We finished with a small brownie with blackberry compote. What a great way to sample some of 1618’s wonderful food without having to pick one item. That’s always the hardest part when you eat there.
Not only was this an amazing dinner with wine pairings and interesting company, but the price was just $45 per person. We will be signing up for them in the future. Since it’s a small space, you will want to sign up early to get in.
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