The Big Dinner at A&B!

For those of you keeping track, at this point during our second day in Napa, we had already accomplished… well… let’s just say a ton of stuff!

We’d met the primary members of Arrow&Branch Winery, met key members of the Contursi family (who’s spearheaded all of this activity), toured their amazing new facility, gotten to know several handfuls of our fellow investors and wine enthusiasts, learned a great deal about the company’s plans and direction from their celebrated winemaker, eaten some terrific food at some wonderful restaurants, and visited, met and sampled the wares of a number of other exemplary, niche wine producers, accompanied by two of our dear friends.

And again, let me stress: it’s only 5:30 p.m. on our second day in California.

Seriously, this schedule was nuts.

However, at this point, Dio and I were dressed up and flushed with anticipation, as we had just returned to the A&B facility for what was billed as “an intimate evening featuring incredible wines paired with a world-class meal prepared by Napa Valley favorite Chef Gary Penir.” Chef Penir was unknown to us before receiving this invitation, but we soon learned that his reputation is solid and quite well-deserved. More on that later.

The invitation’s description of this dinner continued, “Indulge in great conversation among peers who cherish the American Dream, one remarkable experience at a time.”

When we arrive in the hospitality area, Michael Ploetz is once more there to greet us with a huge smile and another glass of the same champagne which we’d received the night prior to kick off the opening reception.

It was a NV Clotilde Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut (my score was 91 points, by the way) and it was a lovely way to start off the evening. Check out my notes on this wine (and all of the wines poured that evening):

Almost immediately, we run into winemaker Jen Williams again. That gave us the perfect opportunity to let her know how much we had loved her and her husband Mark’s Zeitgeist Cellars wines earlier in the day at our lunch/tasting at the Charter Oak restaurant. As you can read about in this post, we were in fact lucky enough to get to try their Trousseau Gris, which she had hoped would be the case. She was happy to know we enjoyed the fruits of their labor (pun intended). Here’s a pic we got of us with Jen!

WHERE THE WINE NERDS ARE

As we were milling around and waiting for dinner to be served, Michael sidles over to us and casually says, “By the way, I sat you right next to Jen Williams, the winemaker, so you guys can all nerd out on wine. I figured you’d like that.” Boy, was he right. It was greatly appreciated. And I’ll tell you why.

This is probably a good time to bring up something that I learned from being a part of the A&B Investor Grand Opening Celebration that I found to be both unexpected and quite interesting. It turned out that of the roughly 50 or so investors (and their guests) who were able to attend some or all of the weekend’s events, there were a several who ― like Dio and myself and the fellow users of CellarTracker whom we met ― are really into wine. But a large number of the people who’ve joined forces to help take A&B to the next level don’t necessarily know much about ― or even care much about ― wine at all. I guess I was a bit surprised by this fact, but in hindsight I suppose I shouldn’t have been.

People make investments for all sorts of reasons. Many do so regardless of their interest in the specific type of activity being undertaken by the company they’re backing. They’re just involved in a financial way because, you know, they’re good businesses with bright futures.

So, some of the folks who were there for this dinner were lawyers, some were in the financial sector, and so on. It turns out that Dio and I were basically part of a smallish subset of investors who certainly feel that it’s a wise risk to take, but are primarily involved in this project because we are fans of Arrow&Branch wines and want to see them able to expand through a major upgrade to their own winery.

Which is why it was especially thoughtful of Michael to make sure we ― as serious wine folks ― had plenty of quality conversational time with a bona fide oenologist.

Here’s some photos of the how the space was setup as well as the menu for that evening’s meal.

FEELING LIKE WE’RE PART OF THE GANG

Once we were seated, we started with the 2019 Arrow&Branch Sauvignon Blanc Heritage Reserve. It was sourced from Stagecoach Vineyard. (Dio and I had visited the Stagecoach Vineyard in the Vaca mountains on our fourth trip to Napa for a Pahlmeyer tasting.) That white was paired expertly with a delightful cucumber appetizer (including some ingredients sourced from Chef Penir’s personal garden!).

It’s at this point that we notice who’s sitting directly across from us: it’s our new friends we met the night before at the welcome reception. The ones who’d recognized my handle from CellarTracker (and I theirs).

In the scant few hours since we’d last seen each other, we’d all had a chance to do more tastings at a variety of locations, so we had a good bit to discuss between us. Two of the stops they recommended highly were Covert Estate and Palisades Canyon.

Covert is located in Coombsville, Ca., and prides itself on using traditional Bordeaux techniques augmented with a California flair. They focus on sustainable farming techniques that respect the terroir and currently offer several different Cabernet Sauvignons plus a Cabernet Franc and a Syrah.

Palisades Canyon’s 700 acres of rugged property are located east of Calistoga and include almost 18 acres of fields which are actively used for growing grapes. Four of those acres have been used for just that purpose since 1870. They grow Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah, as well as small blending blocks of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.

We learned that night that Graeme MacDonald is working with Palisades Canyon as their winemaker. Graeme is also the winemaker for MacDonald wines (shocking, right?), which Dio and I had tried last year. So, we’re going to be on the lookout for that, as well as Covert, the next time we’re in Napa. It was great to be able to kind of “trade notes” with other enthusiasts and talk about the wines we’re discovering.

At that point, what with being invited to a private dinner with a renowned chef, and being seated by other people who are really keyed into what’s going on in this area, and swapping stories about what and where we’re drinking, it was really starting to feel a bit like we were Napa insiders, you know?

THE MEAL BEGINS

Around this time, Steve Contursi brought everyone to order and proceeded to introduce Michael Ploetz, who explained which wine would be poured. He talked a bit about each wine, and then handed things over to Jen (who’s sitting right next to me), who went into great detail about the wine making and what made each one we had that night unique. And then it was time for dinner to be served.

Before each service, Chef Penir stood and explained in detail what inspired him to create that course. That’s when we learned that much of what we were eating included ingredients he had personally grown himself. Chef Penir has been cooking in Napa and Sonoma counties for decades. Born and raised in the Napa Valley, he earned a degree from San Diego State University and another from the Culinary Institute of America. In addition to working for a time at the 2 Michelin-starred Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg, Ca., and at Germany’s 3 Michelin-starred Vendome Restaurant, which in 2013 was named the #10 Best Restaurant in the World by San Pellegrino. He’s also traveled the world, studying cuisine and cooking in Spain, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, France, Japan and Vietnam.

So, yeah, he knows his way around the kitchen!

This video is of Chef Penir describing one of the dishes served that night:

As the meal progressed, so did the wines we sampled. The next up was a 2012 Arrow&Branch Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label. It was paired with an Iberico Pork Presse and Israeli Couscous. I found it extremely hard to believe that this is considered A&B’s “entry level wine,” as ― for me at least ― it was clearly the wine of the night (WOTN).

Then we were treated to the chef’s Oregon Lamb Loin, which was paired with A&B’s 2018 Right Bank Blend. These two worked very well together. Another win.

This was a wonderful night, filled with extremely high-end food, superior-quality wine and good companionship. Based on the pleased and at times joyous looks on the faces of the representatives from A&B, I feel certain they viewed the dinner (and, by extension, the entire Investor Celebration) as a tremendous success. But see for yourself in these photos of Michael and Steve as they are pouring wine:

IS THAT A REALLY BIG BOTTLE, OR ARE YOU JUST HAPPY TO SEE ME?

Looking back now, it may seem a bit silly to say, but honestly, for me, one of the highlights of the night was being served from a Salmanazar. Now, for those who may have never heard that term before, a Salmanazar is a big bottle of wine. Like, a really big bottle.

How big, exactly?

Well, a Salmanazar holds nine liters (!) of wine, which is the equivalent of 12 standard bottles. That big.

It’s not the only size and type of giant wine bottle, though. There’s the Imperial, which holds six liters (or eight standard bottles); the Balthazar, which holds 12 liters (or 16 standard bottles); and the Nebuchadnezzar, which holds 15 liters (or 20 standard bottles).

That’s just crazy, right?

Prior to that night, the largest bottle I’d ever drank from was a Double Magnum, which holds three liters. So, this was a fairly huge jump in size and volume from that previous record. I had always wondered, what exactly is the deal with these ridiculously big bottles?

I mean, they’re fun to look at and collect and all, but it seems that the real reason they exist is because if a wine is being made to age, the size of the bottle ― relative to the size of the cork ― has a great bearing on how much oxygen makes its way into the bottle. Meaning: the bigger the bottle, the lesser percentage of oxygen that makes it into the wine, and thus, the longer the wine can age without spoiling. Pretty ingenious, huh?

By this point, the meal had finished. I went in search of Michael to see if I could cajole him into taking a picture of me with that big bottle. I guess I was the first person to ask, and he was game. So, I offered him my cell phone to use to capture the image and he said, “Let’s go outside and do this properly! The sun’s going down and we have a vintage truck with our logo on it out back…”

I took his suggestion for the best location for the shot and wound up with what I think are a couple of really good pictures of me holding the Salmanazar in front of that antique automobile.

After a bit more drinking and socializing in the lovely new hospitality area (where we were able to meet and become acquainted with both Michael and Steve’s wives), the second night of our experience ended. It had been a whirlwind of a day that did not disappoint in any way. But there was still more to do and see, starting the next morning…