The first dinner took place this week and I was lucky enough to be invited to the Adami Prosecco Dinner at Blue Water Cafe. The 5-course meal was paired with various Prosecco from the Adami collection.
You know you're in the right place for a Wine Dinner when one wall of the private room looks like this. the other three were just as stunning.
Due to traffic, I had missed the Ceviche course, but made it just in time for the Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio. This was presented so beautifully that I almost didn't want to cut into it. Underneath the thinly sliced salmon was a salad of arugula and fennel. The fish was so fresh and had a very buttery feel to it. This was served with a Bosco Di Gica, a brut, and it's very young and has a subtle dry palate. 
Next up was the Lobster Raviolo, and this is even prettier and more delicate that the salmon carpaccio! The pasta topping is one of the more elegant presentations I have seen in quite some time. It's topped with a few pieces of calamari as well. 
Moving aside the top layer of the pasta, you see just how much lobster is packed inside that little bundle! The sauce is Morrocan based but quite mild and didn't overpower the lobster at all. This was served with the Dei Casel, which is very crisp and smooth, with a dry finish. 
For our main course, we were treated to a Maple Glazed Sablefish. The celeriac puree was velvety smooth and had a slice smokiness to it as well. The green beans paired well with the buttery sauce, which had just a hit of yuzu, giving the dish a mild Asian flare. The sablefish itself was sweet and salty, from a combination of the Maple glaze on top and inherent flavours of the fish itself. It was cooked to a perfect texture with a slight crust on the outside from the caramelization of the maple. On the inside, the fish delicately flaked off into perfect white pieces, ready to soak up some more of the buttery sauce. this was paired with the Vigneto Giardino Rive and is a Prosecco without effervescence! 
For dessert, we got the Vanilla Lemon Panna Cotta, which was topped with a peach jelly. The panna cotta has lots of vanilla bean in it, and the texture of the peach jelly actually reminded me of really fresh gummy bears. So good, and the almond cranberry biscotti was a nice touch for a crunch, as were the nuts inside the glass too. We had the Cartizze with this, and it had a light sweet flavour but still finished on the dry side. 
In case we weren't all already bursting at the seams, we were served little Sweet Treats in the form of nut clusters, mini brownies and madeleines. Too much food to be sure, but the miniature size of it all just made it look so appealing. Those brownie bites were amazing!
Here is a complete list of the bottles we had with dinner. From the right, they are:
- Bosco Di Gica (Brut from the Classics)
- Garbel (a Brut from the Classics of Treviso, which I missed as part of the first course)
- Dei Casel (Extra Dry from the Classics)
- Giardino (Tranquillo from the Traditionals)
- Cartizze (Dry from the Crus)
Here is the list of upcoming Autumn Wine Dinner Series.
November 4 - Township 7 Dinner at Blue Water Cafe
November 9 - Big Guns: Icons of the Wine World at Araxi during Cornucopia
November 27 - Sandhill Winemaker’s Dinner at West
Did you know?
As we wound down our meal, Enrico Valleferro (export manager for Adami) shared something interesting with us. For our entire tasting, all our prosecco was poured into large white-wine glasses, not champagne flutes. This allows the aromas of the prosecco to expand so that they can actually reach your nose. If you use champagne flutes, your tendency would be to purse your lips and as a result, the wine goes right to the back of your mouth instead of lingering on your palate.
I need a wine wall like that in my house!!!
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