A successful bachelor party…with a surprising discovery!
After a long day of paintball warfare and hot tub relaxation, 13 of my closest friends and I took our bachelor party celebration to The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle. The Met is one of my favorite restaurants, in part because their service is generally excellent, but also because you can get Chateaubriand, among other beef delicacies.
The bachelor party ritual at The Met began 5 years ago with one of the friends in attendance last night. We all enjoyed the experience so much, we decided to head back again…or, I decided to head back again, and everyone agreed. As I have blogged here before, I purchased 4 bottles of 2004 Sea Smoke “Southing” for the occasion. The purchase served three purposes: It gave us all a good wine for dinner without paying restaurant prices, it let me get a full allocation of Sea Smoke, and I got to try a whole bunch of Sea Smoke wine!
When we arrived in our private room, the table was set for 14 guys. The 4 bottles of Sea Smoke were there waiting for us. Quickly, our sommelier for the evening (Lance) arrived and decanted the wine for us. I told him to pour some for himself, which he did…he was quite interested in the wine as I doubt anyone has brought in a bottle of it just yet. His initial impression matched mine: a lot of cherry with some smoke and, interestingly, roasted meat. It had a shiraz character at first, but that shifted into a really potent Pinot Noir.
I spent much of the evening talking, laughing, and enjoying that wine. Every one of the other guys enjoyed it too, even the ones who professed that all wine was just grape juice to them. It was a nice, small victory when I convinced those guys that this wine was really good.
We had some timing issues, though. We didn’t drink the wine nearly as fast as I thought we would, partly because a bunch of guys ordered martinis, which was hilarious to me as martinis are good before dinner but they taste terrible with, say, lobster bisque. Some guys still had martini leftovers by the time the entrees arrived. Yuck!
This slow consumption meant that we still had plenty of Sea Smoke by the time our main courses materialized. Four waiters worked the table, providing everything from my tableside Chateaubriand to the Copper River king salmon to the 20-ounce ancho chile ribeye. At the same time, my friend and I decided to pull the trigger on a wine that we thought would be a popular selection at the table: a magnum of 2001 Woodward Canyon Columbia Valley “Old Vines” Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wine, while tasty, was absolutely no match for the Sea Smoke. That’s right: The Pinot tasted better with the meat, and simply tasted better overall, compared to the Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cab was almost thin after the bulk of the smoky, cherry, meaty Pinot. Some guys loved the Cab, of course, but they also liked the Pinot a lot too. Interesting stuff.
We finished off the evening with a half bottle of 1966 Porto Rocha Colheita Tawny port. Wow! Now that’s a great tawny port…less of the fire that typifies lesser tawny, at least in my opinion. Lots of great maple aroma and flavor. A delicious port, and an excellent way to conclude a great evening.
As for the Sea Smoke, I am fully on board with the style of Pinot Noir displayed in their Southing release. Truly a terrific Pinot Noir, but not necessarily typical of the varietal (at least from my perspective, with my limited knowledge and experience). This wine is multidimensional and interesting because it evolves in the glass over an hour or two. It needed about 20 minutes of decanting, but then it really came to life and tasted more rich and lush, and less like a shiraz. I’m looking forward to the Botella and Ten bottles in my wine fridge!