Black And White With A Splash of Red A Tasteful Success

Readers of this blog know that Green Dragon is my wife and member of the TWAV tasting team. She’s usually front and center in our adventures and is occasionally the target of a humorous (in my opinion) story.  Green Dragon also is a volunteer for the Red Cross.

She recently attended a wine pairing dinner to benefit the Northwest Ohio American Red Cross accompanied by friend Glorious T. Here’s her report…

The inaugural wine dinner “Black and White with a Splash of Red” was put on by the American Red Cross as a fund raiser to help support its mission of providing help to those suffering from a disaster. All funds raised will be used to support local needs. The event was a smashing success with 135 tickets sold for this exclusive event.
 
Black Diamond Nursery in Perrysburg was magically transformed into an upscale dining venue. This evening was certainly much different from a year ago when I was in the midst of floods and devastation in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey. I served there as a disaster volunteer with the Red Cross.

Glorious T and I enjoyed the five course meal, prepared by Jim Hodulik of Stella’s Restaurant, which was expertly paired with wines from Wine Trends. Where were our husbands? They were getting sweaty and playing their league tennis instead. Our table was #7, and it proved to be an entertaining mix of characters who were happy to provide feedback on the wines as they were poured.

Fortant Chardonnay and Cabernet were served with appetizers which included smoked chicken breast atop pate de fois gras, fresh mozzarella with sundried tomato cecina and seared Ahi-tuna Nicoise salad. One of our favorites was the fresh and tasty Vitiano Bianco, an Italian white 50/50 blend of Verdicchio and Vermentino. This was paired with roasted Cornish hen topped with tangerine lemongrass. It was a delicious dish, but those hens have a lot of small bones.
 

The favorite on the red side was Fattoria Rodano Poggialupi, a red wine from the Chianti Classico vineyard of Fattoria Di Rodando. The owner, Enrico Pozzesi, was present and introduced this wine. The wine is 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cabernet and Merlot. This is a wine is bursting with berry and cigar flavors.
 
It’s great to make new friends while supporting a very worthy cause.

Related articles

• Red Cross helping Sandy victims still in NY hotels (bigstory.ap.org)
• Tasting Notes : Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna 2012 (wineramblings.wordpress.com)
• Bocelli Rosso Toscano, IGT (toledowinesandvines.blogspot.com)