
The Dining Room at Sugar
Bowl
By Barbara Keck
“Chef
Davis designs food to match the wine.”
It was
almost magical, riding the gondola in the sparkling snow and winter lights,
filled with anticipation at meeting Chef Alan Davis at the Dining Room
of the Lodge at Sugar Bowl. Alan is the creative chef at the resort, and
his philosophy of wine and food is simply put: he designs food to match
the wine.
When
Chef Alan first joined Sugar Bowl to amplify the wine list and menu, the
restaurant was known as Four Peaks. He’d come to Sugar Bowl after
already putting 12 years experience at Rainbow Lodge on his resume, along
with a stint in West Palm Beach training under an Alsatian chef.
“It’s
a symbiotic situation,” Chef Alan proclaims. “Finding good
wines is a joy, and matching my menu to those wines is a dream come true.”
He likes
to find complementary wines – for example, a dry wine with rich food.
Alan starts every fall by tasting about 200 wines, and he has his menu
in mind but not completed. The result is terrific.
Alan
poured a sparkling Gruet Blanc de Noir to start, accompanied by one of
his signature dishes, Pan Seared Diver Scallop on a bed of sweet mashed
potatoes with a brown butter sauce and chives. This dish is rich, and the
Gruet was a nice choice. The palette-cleansing effect of champagne is a
sure winner with such a pairing, and the Gruet Blance de Noir is a drier
champagne without a sweet back finish.
Next
was the 2006 Mount Vernon Petite Sirah, with fruit sourced from Cooper
Vineyard in Amador County and made in small quantities at the winery in
Auburn, uses a lot of oak to emulate a French style of Syrah. On the nose,
raspberry licorice chocolate aromas, with a cherry taste and a nice finish,
not too tannic. 13.9 percent alcohol. This paired nicely with the Pan Seared
Scottish Salmon finished with a saffron broth and garnished with braised
French lentils.
The absolutely
spectacular dish and wine pairing was the medallions of New Zealand Venison
served with the 2006 Acorn Sangiovese, Alegria Vineyards, Russian River
Valley. I like the wines from Acorn, and it is to their credit that the
winery takes care to field blend its wines from grapes that are estate-grown
and sustainably farmed. This magnificently balanced wine offers a bit of
spice, a touch of tannin, creamy oak, berries, cherry, cocoa, blueberry,
mocha. Yummy. 14.1 percent alcohol. The venison was perfect, accompanied
by grilled Swiss chard and finished with a lingonberry glace. This is one
of Chef Alan’s new menu items; it is a winner.
Not on
the printed menu, but a frequent special at the Dining Room at Sugar Bowl,
is the Quail in a Bed of Risotto Redolent of White Truffle, garnished with
morel mushrooms. Pair this with a 2007 Domaine Des Vercheres, Macon-Village
white burgundy. To the credit of the chef (and rare), it was served at
the perfect temperature. This burgundy complemented the richness of the
Asiago cheese that was used to flavor the risotto, as the wine is a bit
on the dry side while still being full-bodied and rich. It is nicely balanced
and flavors of peach, legume and grapefruit carry through to a lingering
finish. 12.5 percent alcohol.
Hours
for the Dining Room at Sugar Bowl’s Lodge are 5:30 to 9 p.m. seven
days a week during the winter, until the second week of April. Summer hours
begin July 4, and the Dining Room serves Wednesday through Sunday. Reservations
are recommended and may be made by calling (530) 426-9000. Watch for the
winemaker dinners, too, at www.sugarbowl.com.
Follow
Barbara’s blog at winebiznews.blogspot.com.
Want to walk the vineyards of Burgundy, France, with Barbara from July
11 to 16, 2010? Contact her at barbara@winebizpr.com.
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