Willamette Wine Tasters

Wine and Food Society Members, Greg and Cami Bunnell, hosted WFSO's first 2010 event at DeCarli, a family-owned and operated restaurant in the heart of Beaverton.  The husband and wife team of Paul and Jana DeCarli offer an Italian inspired menu that changes frequently throughout the year.  Paul, a long time Oregonian, put in his time with restaurants such as Paragon, Fratelli and Saucebox.  Jana also brings years of experience from her time in San Francisco and locally at Bluehour.  Plus, she's a University of Oregon graduate.

Pax Mahle started the winery, along with his wife, in 2000.  With investor Joe Donelan, their goal was simple - find the best fruit and make the best Rhone-styled varietals.  Not too long into the venture, disputes arose and Mahle was let go in 2008.  Donelan continued with the winery, which sources grapes mostly from the North Coast area near Sonoma.  In December of 2009, Donelan made good on his promise to continue the business and formed Donelan Family Wines from the ashes of Pax. 


The line up


Greg was able to procure the Pax wine at a single auction last fall .  He soon made contact with Jana and they agreed to work together to come up with a menu that would marry the wine and the food for the event.  After a few e-mails back and forth the menu was set.  Jana, and her able staff, had us in the main area of the restaurant near the back.  A long table, with a gorgeous chandelier salvaged from the Benson Hotel above, proved to be perfect for the fourteen guests in attendance.

For the first course, a trio of bruschetta and a caramelized onion and goat cheese cazuela, Greg and Cami poured two bottles from Champagne House Vilmart and Cie.  Located just south of Reims, in the tiny villiage of Rilly, Vilamart has been making beautiful wine since 1872.  For this tasting, we sampled a NV Cuvee Grand Cellier and a 2000 Couer de Cuvee.  The non-vintage sparkling wine is comprised mostly of Chardonnay (60%) with the balance coming from both Pinot Noir (36%) and Pinot Meunier (4%).  This wine was made from juice blend of fruit from 2003, 2004 and 2005.  The wine was disgorged in December 2007.  The Couer de Cuvee is made from the heart of the juice meaning that both the first and the last part of the pressing is not used.  This cuvee is primarily Chardonnay (80%) with the rest coming from Pinot Noir (20%).  As with the non-vintage wine, this was also disgorged in December 2007.  These sparklers were the perfect compliment to the bruschetta and cazuela.


The fingerling potato, gorganzola and mushroom tapenade, teleggio and chive bruschetta

When the champagne was gone and there was still plenty of food to go around, Greg pulled out a secret bottle he had located the night before at a wine tasting, a 2006 Stolpman L'Avion Roussane and Viognier blend, while everyone traded stories about the past holiday.

For the second course, Paul made a winter squash soup topped with toasted pumpkin seed, pumpkin oil and creme fraiche - the picture does not even begin to do justice to this soup.


The "to die for" squash soup

With the soup we sampled a 2005 and 2006 Pax Cellars Roussanne Venus.  The 2005 was 100% Roussane while the 2006 was blended with 37% Viognier.  In some discussions Greg had with Joe Donelan, there was some concern that the 2005 might be in a "dumb phase."  Hardly - it had great mouth feel and a long finish.  And while not everyone was familiar with these Rhone-styled whites, all could taste and smell how the Viognier added some depth and character to the 2006.

At Jana's suggestion, the third course was served family style.  Huge plates of gnocchi with white truffles, fontina cream and truffle oil and tagliatelle with pancetta, black trumpet mushrooms, roasted garlic, shallot, sage and grana padano took over the long table.  We tasted four wines in this flight, two at a time.  They included 2005 offerings from Alder Springs The Terraces, Alder Springs and Cuvee Christine Syrah's.  The last bottle was a 2006 Kobler Family Syrah.  These are huge wines.  Both the Alder Springs and The Terraces comes from Mendocino.  The Terraces blends in about 3% Viognier while the Alder Springs is entirely Syrah from mostly whole clusters.  The Cuvee Christine comes from Sonoma while the Kobler Family Syrah hails from the Russian River Valley.


Gnocchi with white truffles, fontina cream and truffle oil



Tagliatelle with pancetta, mushroom, toasted garlic, shallot, sage and grana padano

After everyone had enjoyed the pasta course, Greg and our waiter, Ryan, began pouring wine for the next flight of four more Pax Syrah's.  With this flight, we moved to the 2006 vintage, again tasting wine from Alder Springs, Alder Springs The Terraces and Cuvee Christine.  We also sampled the 2006 Pax Obsidian from Knights Valley.  These Syrah's, as with the first flight, were enormous.  Huge black fruit and ink staining qualities.  With these wines, and arguable some pallet fatigue, we had DeCarli's signature entree, beef shortribs that had been braised with espresso and dried prunes.  The shortribs were placed on top of a creamy spaetzle and covered amply with gremolata.


The beef shortribs over a creamy spaetzle

WFSO founding member and guest, Jim Atwood, opened a nice bottle of Abacela Syrah to taste head to head with some of the Pax Syrah.  After several comparisons he noted that the Abacela was "the weak sister" compared with the Pax Syrah's.  Not sure if that was entirely accurate, but it didn't have the huge fruit that came from the Pax Northern Coast Syrah's.

At this point, most had both pallet and gastronomic fatigue.  But, as with all things important, we found and managed our way to the final course, a Vanilla Bean Panna Cotto, tasted alongside a 1996 Domaine des Baumard Layon Clos de Ste Catherine, a sweet dessert wine from the Loire Valley in France and comprised of Chenin Blanc grapes.  In a word - heaven.


The vanilla bean panna cotta with saba

Those attending the event, all WFSO members agreed that it was the perfect way to start off the events for 2010.  It was great to see everyone and wish all well for the upcoming year.  A special thanks again to the DeCarli's, and their staff, for a wonderful event.  And thanks to Ryan, our waiter, who provided an excellent wine service for the group.



Salud!