It's My Birthday Too, Yah

To celebrate my birthday I threw myself a dinner party (actually it was the luck of scheduling and nothing more). October 7, which was my 45th birthday again, Ursula's hosted a wine dinner featuring the wines of Ladera Vineyards. Dan Stotesbery, Ladera's national sales manager, was on hand to share his insight into both the wines and winery. The dinner guests were greeted with sauvignon blanc and appetizers. The sauv blanc was beautiful, it was built for a summer day with hints of tropical fruit, lime and melon, but was not too light for the cooler autumn weather. It paired very well with Chef Andrew Whalen's hummus. The first course was squid ink pasta with squash and brown butter paired with Pillow Rd. Pinot Noir. The pairing was fabulous, the Pillow Rd may have been my favorite wine of the night, it was like velvet, the flavors were rich, round, hints of cherry and raspberry. The pasta was very good as well, the squash we have been getting lately has been superb. The Napa Valley cab was poured next, it is the only blend in Ladera's lineup, there is some malbec and petit verdot in the mix. It was served with a rack of lamb and bacon and feta couscous stuffed tomato. The Napa cab is always stellar and a great value for Napa fruit, which showed dark plum and brambleberry fruit flavors. The lamb rack married wonderfully with the flavors playing off of each other. Duck breast with apple bacon chutney and the Howell Mountain cab was next. The Howell Mountain cab is refined, stately and well structured, the folks at Ladera refer to it as the gentleman. It complemented the duck very well with dark cherry and blackberry flavors. The Lone Canyon Cab is referred to as the cowboy, wild and rough with some complex tannins. The Lone Canyon shows flavors of dark cherry and licorice. It's a great cab and paired well with pork tenderloin and sweet potato gnocchi. One point of interest in the menu is that all the courses had bacon and a touch of orange in them. Everything is better with bacon and the orange just reiterated the fact autumn was here in a subliminal, foreshadowing sort of way. Enough Bergman visual simile and on to dessert. Sweet potato ice cream in a chocolate cup with bacon and butterscotch served with syrah. The ice cream was awesome and the bacon was a very nice touch. We chose syrah for dessert because Ladera only makes 6 wines and we had to get the syrah in there somewhere. It is outstanding, very smooth, rich, meaty and a lush texture. Dan did a great job explaining everything and all the courses were excellent. A great dinner, happy birthday to me.