Guess who’s one year close to being a 30-something couple?? We are The Husband’s been holding up his end of that title for a little less than a year now and I turned the big 2-9 this past Monday.  To celebrate, the Husband took me out to a wine pairing dinner this past Friday with our friends.  This wonderful restaurant is located just around the corner from us (we could walk if we had comfortable walking shoes) and the Husband enjoyed it the week before for a beer dinner.  Ventano Italian Grill & Seafood is a nice italian restaurant that occassionaly has wine dinners (or beer, which was new the week the Husband went… perhaps he’ll recap it next week ) and one of their nicest ones (and most expensive) was this past Friday.

The dinners are located in a back mini ballroom of sorts with a beautiful view of the valley.

We found a seat and began looking at the menu and all the information about the winery providing the wine for the dinner.  Look at all those forks and knives!

And look at that menu! I was drooling, though a bit nervous about the Steak Tartare…

Lots of glasses filled the table of course

After an introduction from Chef Arnauld and some of the other main staff, the wine and food began! First up, a glass of the Darioush 2009 Viognier. The only other time I remember having a Viognier was at our wine dinner our last night in Sydney at Harbour Kitchen… the whole dinner Friday night reminded the Husband and I of that amazing meal.  This Viognier was different though – not as sweet since it wasn’t a dessert wine.  The table was quite impressed with this glass.

The matching first course was the Lumb Crab Cake on a nest of celery root.  The celery root was mixed with something creamy and the carrots on top provided a nice crunch along with the warm, slightly soft but slightly crisp crab cake.  It was an excellent first course and set the stage for the rest of the meal.

For our second course, we were served Darioush’s 2008 Chardonnay.  I’m always fan of Chardonnay and this was no different.  However, this wine actually opened our taste buds to show us all at the table how much we enjoyed the Viognier.

The wines were coming too quickly so you’ll start to see them pile up on the table for me

Our next course was a Crispy Halibut with a Tomato-Ginger-Orange Salad.  Simply wow.  Personally, I don’t like ginger but in this salad it was amazing.  The orange balanced it out so well.  The textures and flavors were all so enjoyable together.  Also, for the first time ever, I truly experienced how a wine can bring out flavors in a meal – I’ve never truly experienced an actual food and wine pairing and this made me quite excited!

Up third, we were on to the reds – Darioush’s 2006 Merlot.  An excellent Merlot!

The Husband showing off the bottle for us

More to my wine line-up!

With the Merlot, we were served the dish that scared me – the Chef “Arnauld” Steak Tartare with Arugula Salad and Toasted Brioche.  For those of you unfamiliar with Steak Tartare, it is raw steak, ground up with “other stuff” (since this was my first time, I have no idea what the “other stuff” is).  In this version, it was a filet cut.  I think it helps that the Husband and I like our steaks Rare so this wasn’t a huge jump, but as with the other courses, we were very impressed!!! Yum! Following one of our dining partners’ leads, we placed some of the steak tartare on the toasted brioche and topped it with arugula.  So very good!

Time for our fourth course and fourth wine.  Up next, we had the Darioush 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. Another excellent wine.

This fourth course was Braised Short Ribs with fresh fettuccini pasta.  Again, an excellent course.  Can’t say much more than that…

By this point, we were stuffed as you can imagine, but there’s always room for a little bit more dessert.  A potpourri of berries with grand marnier and as you can see, whipped cream and puff pastry.  The grand marnier was a bit strong for me but the berries and whipped cream were a sweet ending to the dinner.

As we enjoyed our desserts, we were brought out raffle tickets… this surprised me a bit, but I’m starting to think that raffles are the way to go at wine events.  There was a raffle at the Terra Verde Wined Up Friday we went to as well – remember that the Husband won a bottle of wine?

Well this time it was my turn I was also the second winner of the night and got my choice of a number of bottles so of course I chose a Chardonnay.

The Husband and I enjoyed it Monday night for my actual birthday with take out. 

This was an amazing dinner.  As you could see and read above, the food was delicious and truly was matched perfectly with each of the wines.  Ventano has a handful of additional wine dinners this year as well as a beer dinner we imagine we’ll check out.  I can’t wait to see what else they’ll pair up!