Hearty autumn's-end foods with wines

It can be very fine to join wine-appreciating friends, arrange thoughtful foods, relax and enjoy a sociable meal without micro-analyzing or photographing it to death. Here's an example by a regular local tasting group. (Members are experienced amateurs de vin, most are also wine professionals in some way.) We chose favorite wines we owned,* then passed the list and our budget (for a special-occasion, but not really lavish, dinner) to a skilled chef (Suzette Gresham-Tognetti, partner in Acquerello, San Francisco, and earlier renowned at Donatello in the 1980s) for food pairings. Below is what she selected and cooked.

Reception

Tartine of house-cured salmon (fine old-fashioned toast-triangle open sandwiches)
Arancini di riso with black truffles (little rice balls on spoons)
1996 Champagne Billecart-Salmon brut, cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart

Menu

Delicate Parmesan budino with squash and fried sage leaf
NV Champagne Charles Heidsieck brut (magnum)

Poached ling cod over puntarelle with beets and chives, toasted nut garnish
1990 Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Spätlese
1997 Egon Müller (Le Gallais) Wiltinger Braune Kupp Spätlese

Carnaroli risotto of salmi of Guinea hen with drizzle of poultry glaze
1997 François Jobard Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières
2001 Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre

Seared beef filet, foie-gras torchon slice (cold house-cured in salt and brandy) on tortino of potato and cardoon, with spinach
1990 Pothier-Rieusset Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens (magnum)
1996 Armand Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos-St-Jacques
1999 Armand Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St-Jacques

Cheeses: Erbe dei Colli Berici, Moliterno al tartufo, Gorgonzola Dolce latte
1971 Remoissenet Musigny (magnum)
1985 J.-F. Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses
1976 Fr. Baumann Niersteiner Pettenthal Auslese (50% Riesling, 50% Sylvaner)

Chocolate hazelnut torte, crostata of pears and huckleberries
1955 Muscat de Rivesaltes
2001 Paolo Bea Sagrantino Passito

Restaurant impressions: Acquerello (http://www.acquerello.com, 1722 Sacramento Street, San Francisco; one star in Michelin), in my limited experience, has shown standout professionalism and sureness of touch. Acquerello is known for creative northern Italian cooking (and a splendid Italian wine list) and, among local wine experts I know, as an understated high-end restaurant giving exceptional value. That was emphatically true this time. This wine group and others do many casual dinners, in homes and restaurants, and this one stood out. Pacing was superb. And the food pairings! They didn't just work, they sang. Credit belongs to the chef. Every course was right on; portions moderate but satisfying. Service was keenly wine-sophisticated -- this is the restaurant where, last year, the sommelier gently relieved me of a Burgundy I guarded jealously against over-handling, and expertly decanted it off its sediment. This time the host and partner, Giancarlo Paterlini, opening some of our wines, passed a sample of mine thoughtfully in a glass. I sniffed it -- slightly but perceptibly corked -- he nodded agreement, opened the second bottle (brought for that contingency). Another staffer, also from Italy, kindly translated the back-label narrative on the Sagrantino bottle, when our Italian failed. Chef came out after dinner and described some of the cooking methods and unusual ingredients and why she chose the pairings. Group resolved to do more dinners.

Tasting notes: Good! All of the wines showed well. No microanalysis here, but some standouts to me were the exquisite German rieslings with the ling-cod course -- not "sweet" wines at all, due to balancing acid -- the cod was poached in milk with a touch of wine, the nuts finished it off perfectly against the wines. 96 Rousseau red Burgundy was beautifully, earthily aromatic, as was 85 Mugnier. What pinot noir is all about. 01 Sagrantino Passito (500ml bottles) was intensely dark with a fresh fruit-skin quality -- blueberryish rather than woody or carameled. 55 Muscat going strong -- complex and sensual. The risotto was finely herbed, redolent and flavorful of the savory fowl. First course, little custard of Parmesan budino, was a revelation: a humble dish that would be equally magnificent with any good riesling or red Burgundy as it was with sparkling wine.

*Wines were bought when new on the market, generally at modest prices, and stored carefully for such use. That's the point, purpose, and custom with wines like these. Had participants tried to buy the wines today, those available at all would be far more expensive, prohibitive for this group of diverse people of moderate means. (Likewise if we'd bought the wines after they were "highly rated" instead of tasting and liking them.)

thanks for notes.
Might I ask what budino are?
The cod pairing is interesting, wouldn't have been my first thought.
I love pintade and white Burg however.
Sounds like a great lineup of wines, only ones I've had are the Rousseaus.
Nice night, nice writeup.

Thanks Dale! The budino is a pudding,* such as a semolina or a bread pudding. Humble, folksy, exquisite. These were savory, not sweet, ones molded as little cylinders, I didn't catch the preparation details but may have been semolina-based. Surprisingly, from what the chef said at the end, they had little or no fat besides the Parmesan itself. Texture was delicate, rich, flan-like, with the sort of deeply wine-friendly savor associated also with dishes like cheese soufflé.


* I take it to be Italianate version of boudin, the French word, with usual added sounded vowels of Italian. (Crêpe / crespia, etc.) That word boudin, also basis of English pudding, I think started with sausages called blood puddings in English, became extended to similarly-shaped foods (classic English "puddings" as in roly-poly suet pudding) and later to other congealed colloids (both British and US English: bread pudding, Indian pudding), and in British English further to dessert courses in general. Davidson has a fine article in his Oxford Companion to Food under "pudding."