Tom Borger, Rudy Shafer (winemaker at Dablon), Laura Gelder (Tasting Room and Wine Club Manager at Dablon), Samer Badreddine (Dining Room Manager of the Boulevard Inn & Bistro) and Carl pose before the wine dinner.
On a Monday afternoon, in the first part of April, I had the pleasure of hosting a tasting of our wines for three of Bud Distributing’s clients. Bud is our southwestern Michigan wine distributor. Vilath Viengmyxay, who works in the wine department, brought Laura Gelder of Dablon Winery and Vineyard, Samer Badreddine, Dining Room Manager of the Boulevard Inn & Bistro, and Brady Cohen, General Manager of the Inn at Harbor Shores. Both of the Inns are located in Saint Joseph, Mich. It was a great afternoon. We tasted my wines and talked shop for several hours.
During the course of the conversation, Samer mentioned they were having a wine dinner at the Bistro featuring Dablon wines in several weeks and he extended an invitation to me and a guest to attend. Naturally, I said I appreciated the invitation and would check my calendar and respond. It seemed like a great opportunity to taste a new winery, get to know Samer better and learn about the Boulevard Inn & Bistro.
I contacted good friend and wine aficionado Tom Borger to see if he wanted to attend the dinner with me. I wasn’t surprised when he accepted.
I had been to the Boulevard Inn one time before when I was making sales calls with Keith Schoenleber of Bud Distributing. If you aren’t familiar with the Boulevard Inn, it is located in downtown Saint Joseph. For more information and directions to the Inn you can check out their website here.
Laura Gelder, Tasting Room and Wine Club Manager at Dablon Winery and Vineyard in Baroda, opens the evening’s activities.
I wasn’t familiar with Dablon wines until I had the pleasure of meeting Laura at our tasting. She is the Tasting Room and Wine Club Manager at Dablon. Although I have been to the winery, I have yet to accept Laura’s invitation to come for a tour and wine tasting (but I fully intend to do so).
I think for those of us who live in this area, we have a tendency to take Michigan’s wines for granted. A little research revealed that, much to my surprise, there are more than 100 wineries in Michigan with more than 15,000 acres of vineyards. I am sure that there is some really good wine being produced at these wineries.
Dablon Winery and Vineyard is located at 111 W. Shawnee Road in Baroda, Mich. To view their website and get additional information and directions to Dablon Winery, click here.
Here are a few photos from the evening:
The Dinner
Tom Borger and I arrived a little ahead of the starting time for the dinner, which turned out to be a good thing as we had the opportunity to meet a number of people involved in the event. We enjoyed a delightful conversation with Rita Downey, Assistant General Manager at The Boulevard Inn. Rita also was attending the dinner, which gave us even more time to chat. We were also introduced to the Bistro’s relatively new Executive Chef, Cheyenne Galbraith, as well as some other guests. We also had the opportunity to chat with Buddy Nate, President of Bud Distributing. All in all it was a great start to an enjoyable evening.
The dinner started with some introductions of the people involved. Tom and I were fortunate to have Dablon Winemaker Rudy Shafer and Laura Gelder at our table. It gave us all the opportunity to discuss wine in general and get Rudy’s insight on each of the evening’s wines.
The evening’s food and wine pairings:
First Course: Smoked Duck Breast with blood orange marmalade and black walnut-micro arugula, paired with the 2014 Dablon Riesling
Dablon Winemaker Rudy Shafer and The Bistro’s Executive Chef Cheyenne Galbraith talk about the food and wine pairings.
Second Course: Salmon rillette with pickled apples and toast points, paired with the 2013 Dablon Chardonnay
Third Course: Mussels with fennel, tomato, garlic, bacon and verjus butter, paired with the 2013 Dablon Pinot Noir
Fourth Course: Grilled venison chop with wild mushrooms, truffle, butternut squash and parmesan, paired with the 2013 Dablon Malbec
Dessert: Caramel au lait tart with caramel ganache, caramel espresso mousse and cream, paired with the 2014 Music Box Riesling
My two standouts of the evening were:
- Chef Cheyenne’s food. I thoroughly enjoyed the first course (smoked duck breast). It was cooked perfectly with just the right amount of smokiness. My second favorite course of the evening was dessert (of course). The caramel au lait tart was delicious.
- The wines. One of my top wine picks was the 2014 Dablon Music Box Riesling. The wine is semi-sweet but not too sweet with hints of peach, apricot and flowers on the nose. On the palate the wine tastes of peaches and pears with hints of apricots. The finish was of a nice length with a balance of acidity and dryness leaving a pleasant mouth feel. My second top wine pick was the 2013 Dablon Pinot Noir. The wine was dry with a nose of red fruit and vanilla. On the palate the wine had hints of cherry, raspberry and a little oak. The finish was of medium length and produced a dry mouth feel.
What an enjoyable evening with good food, wine and friends (both old and new). What more can you ask for than that? Congratulations to the entire Bistro team and to Dablon Winery and Vineyard for putting together the evening’s successful wine dinner. A special “thank you” goes out to Samer for the invitation. I have reciprocated by inviting him to one of our Tiedemann On Wines Wine Club dinners.
As always I appreciate your support of our wine blog and encourage you to share it with family and friends. If you care to share your comments on this blog posting or other topics please do so in the comments section below.
Until next week,
Cheers
Please join us for these upcoming Tiedemann On Wines Wine Club dinners:
May 19, Dark Star Cellars Wine Dinner at McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk in Elkhart, 6:30 p.m.
October 13, Old World Versus New World Wines, Dinner at McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk in Elkhart, 6:30 p.m.
November 10, Spanish Wine Dinner at McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk in Elkhart, 6:30 p.m.
