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A Half-Dozen Wines for Dinner … Brilliant!
The menu and the wines have been set — subject to the usual last-second snafus — for the Eclipse Anniversary Dinner, and both are, shall we say …
… eclectic in the finest sense of the word. I am really looking forward to this event. Blue Moon and Eclipse proprietor Greg Fitzgerald put together the meal and invited me to choose the wines. What was he thinking?? You’ll have to ask him.
Here’s what we came up with:
Reception: Pates, imported cheeses and sparkling wines picked by Greg
First Course: Seared rare Hawaiian white tuna with foie gras, butter-poached lobster and papaya mustard vinaigrette, served with the 2003 Beckman Marsanne
Second course: Trio of sweet, candied, hot and savory beets with exotic greens wrapped in a Vietnamese rice paper, served with a non-vintage Brut sparkling Vouvray from Phillippe Foreau
Third Course: Butternut and roasted garlic bisque served in a mini gourd, served with the 2004 Alban Viognier
Fourth Course: Seared rabbit loin and confit with a sauce of apricots and black trumpet mushrooms, served with 2003 Jean-Luc Dubois Savigny-les-Beaune “Les Picotin� red Burgundy
Fifth Course: South African “Biltong”-style beef tenderloin air-cured with salt and coriander, served with the 1999 Melini Chianti Classico Riserva “La Savinellaâ€?
Sixth Course: Venison tartare and smoked buffalo carpaccio, served with the 2001 Robert Pecota Winery 2001 Syrah
Seventh Course: Dessert TBA, served with the Taylor-Fladgate LBV Port.
Hey, I said it was eclectic. And a feast. Not a chardonnay or a cabernet in the bunch, but lots of incredible wines. The food should make them even better.
The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14 at Eclipse at 79 S. Main Street in Centerville. Tickets for the seven-course-plus dinner, with seven wines to accompany, are $80 per person, not including tax and tip. For more information or to make reservations, call the restaurant at 937-436-3925 (Thanks, Bob, for the correction).
And, of course, Cheers!
Mark Fisher
Comments
By bob
November 15, 2005 4:30 PM | Link to this
The dinner and wines lived up to all that was promised. While certainly eclectic (I can’t say that I have had many dishes even similar to what was served) all of the course were delicious and very nicely presented. Mark, you did an excellent job matching wines with the dishes. While the wines were very good compliments to the food there were a few that I actually liked better by themselves. In those cases, the food brought out more of the fruity characteristics of the wine and somewhat hid the more complex characteristics. Still there was enough wine served with each course to make it possible to taste the wines before, during and after the food. I even carried over some of the wine from one course to the next. Many of the crossover pairings were very good too. My compliments to Greg and the staff at Eclipse, and to you too, Mark, on a very enjoyable evening. I will look forward to the next event at Eclipse.By Bob
November 9, 2005 5:34 PM | Link to this
I went to the web link first before reading all of your post. The web site says to call the Blue Moon number for reservations. They are not taking the reservations there and people should call only the Eclipse number 436-3925. The menu and wines do sound eclectic as you say.. but also very good. I’m looking forward to it.