Saratoga Springs, New York has a little jewel of a wine bar on Broadway, named The Wine Bar, which I have mentioned before. I also mentioned a couple of months ago my last wine dinner there, after which I fell off my Adirondack camp deck and broke a rip off in two places. After that, I considered that I would use a driver for my next wine dinner, - but later realized that the driver might get me to camp okay, but I could hardly ask him to carry me up the stairs of my deck to the door. So I just concentrated harder this time, last Friday evening; and it was well above freezing, and dry, making the ascension of wooden stairs in the dark less difficult.
First course: Striped Bass with oyster mushroom, herb coulis and red pepper pancake.
Paired wines: 2005 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis: Petit; (Just) Chablis; 1er Cru Mountains.
Second course: escargot with shallot, parsley and bacon.
Paired wines: 2004 Joseph Drouhin: Meursault; Puligny Montrachet; Chassagne Montrachet.
Third course: duck confit vol-au-vent
Paired wines: Bourhard Pere & Fils: Bourgogne 2005; Santenay 2004; 1er Cru Cailleret Volnay
Fourth course: venison with blackberry gastrique, butternut squash and melted leeks.
Paired wines: Maison Leroy 1er Cru Bousselots Nuits St. Geroges 2000; Domaine Jean Chauvenet Nuits St. Georges 2004; Domaine Jean Chauvenet 1er Cru Rue De Chaux Nuits St. Georges 2004.
Then a blind tasting of a 1985 red, which, because I was not blown away and was talking, and could start to feel the wine, did not record.
Lastly a desert of vanilla ice cream, coffee syrup and vanilla braised pineapple.
The wines were quite young, and not evolved, but very nice, but not too young to enjoy; and they offered a chance to notice the subtle differences between village-level and 1er Crus, and the influences of northern and slightly more southern climes.
Dining at The Wine Bar is always highly enjoyable. At the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, there is mountain influence in the menu choices and a rustic elegance which comes more from the denizens and the building, itself, than from the decorations which are urbanesque in comparison to the bar’s neighbors.
The wine dinners are like you might have at your country house, rather than expect in a restaurant. You get to drink full pours, not tastes; so that a drinker can feel he has drunk, and a taster can leave as much as s/he pleases in each glass. Spitting, however, would be unheard of and not tolerated for long, as there are no receptacles for it.
The Bar’s owner and I agreed that we needed a Bordeaux wine dinner very soon. I have tolerated one too many wine dinners there with other-than-Bordeaux. If any members of this forum are close enough to Saratoga and would enjoy such a dinner, please email me and I will let you know when it will be held as soon as I know. The dinners are intimate, with usually no more than 20 diners all at one long table. For the next one, we will have a piano player. In the presence of the grand piano near the head of the table, someone to play it was flagrantly missing on Friday and greatly anticipated with the ambience of Bordeaux.