WINE CHAT: Wine for Summer Winter

From afar, Kevin MacDormand seems to have a rather fun job.  I'm sure it's demanding and has its share of headaches, but managing the newest innovation from award-winning chefs Clark Frasier and Mark Gaeir is a stimulating challenge.  Mark and Clark established themselves as innovative chefs with Arrows in Ogunquit, Maine, which is ranked regularly among America's top restaurants.  Arrows features incredibly fresh ingredients including meats cured on the premises in addition to growing nearly all their own vegetables. 

After successfully translating their skills to the casual MC Perkins, Mark and Clark are now bringing their fresh, authentic cuisine concept to a Mariott in the Boston suburb of Burlington.  Summer Winter is not your typical hotel restaurant by any stretch; I first realized that when planting seeds in the restaurant's greenhouse at their opening event.

Kevin is responsible for managing all aspects of the new restaurant, but with his background with wine, he didn't need to delegate building the wine list to a sommelier.  Prior to his current job, Kevin worked at Rogue Valley winery in Oregon; and had created the wine list at his last restaurant job in New Hamshire.

Kevin's approach to choosing wines for the list was to focus on making it approachable while also offering some options that are a bit off the beaten path--which I'd say is in keeping with the creative food menu.  I got together for a chat with Kevin about building the wine list for Summer Winter before my first visit for dinner.  This conversation provided some good insider tips for choosing wines for our recent Valentine's Day meal at Summer Winter as well as providing useful background for this article.

We arrived well in advance of our dinner reservation, so we sidled up to the stylish bar and perused the wine list.  There were a lot of interesting choices by the glass.  The Now & Zen Wasabi White first caught my eye with its unusual name, plus I was intrigued by the blend of Alsation grape varietals including gewurstraminer, pinot blanc, riesling and one I'd never heard of, sylvaner.  I savored the hibiscus nose and tasted this flavorful white with a crisp citrus taste and clean finish.  The gewurstraminer showed nicely in this one.  A good pre-dinner sipping wine.

We finished our Wasabi White just in time to adjourn to our table for dinner.  The menu features a wide variety of innovative cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood and fresh ingredients.  After perusing the menu a bit, I thought I had my order all set.  The trout had caught my eye, and I'd order a bottle of the 2006 Domaine Pepiere Loire ($25 on the wine list*), one of the muscadets Kevin had recommended for pairing with fish.

Trout and muscadet may be a good match, but I'll have to wait another time to report on that.  The server came out with the evening specials and upended my carefully laid food and wine plans.  I simply couldn't say no to the roasted lamb loins served with polenta, mushrooms and truffles.  Needless to say, muscadet was not the thing to drink with this hearty fare (my server seemed quite relieved to hear I planned to change the wine order).

I scanned my notes from talking to Kevin again and noted that he recommended several bottles of zin that seemed to be a good potential pairing for the lamb dish.  We went with the 2006 Dashe Cellars Dry Creek Zinfandel ($40*), a wine hailing from a Sonoma based winery.  Though a 2006 seemed young for a zinfandel, I thought with a little breathing time it could be a good bottle for the main course.  This proved true, as the first taste was quite woody and clearly was not ready.  But we set that aside while we enjoyed our appetizer, and by the time we were ready for it, the wine had opened up nicely, showing complex flavors and ripening berry fruit.  A lot of depth to the wine, it is likely to improve with aging.  But it was a good match for the succulent lamb and earthy truffles.  I'm glad I went with that special.

I'm taking this review a bit out of order here.  Once the fish and muscadet plan was set aside, we needed something else for the Radicchio Gratin with Avocado, Bacon, Ancho Chile Puree appetizer we'd ordered.  Not an obvious one to match, so thought we'd try a glass of the 2005 Lenz Moser "Singing" Gruner Veltliner, having recalled Kevin was enthusiastic about this Austrian varietal I've come to enjoy too.  This white had notes of green apple, providing a nuanced offset to the interesting appetizer.  I believe the radicchio was baked with gruyere cheese for this along with a bit of spicy chile puree.  But what really gave it flavor was the bacon cured up at Arrows restaurant.  I usually don't get too excited about cured meats, but the flavor of those made with the fresh ingredients of Arrows is outstanding.

We'd had enough wine to skip the dessert wine, but not dessert.  I'd stopped taking notes by this point; I simply remember it being chocolate and very good!

Let me finish this artice not with vague references to dessert but with a few more observations about the wine list.  If you find yourself at Summer Winter and order fish, either of the whites I sampled would go nicely.  But Kevin also highlights muscadets for pairing with the seafood, the 2006 Domaine Pepiere Loire ($25 on the wine list*) and the 2005 Domaine Tourmaine Sur Lie ($27).  You haven't been out to dinner lately if you don't realize what great prices those are for a good bottle of wine at a restaurant!

Kevin also mentioned several bottles on their list that might go "under the radar" but are worth trying--the Dashe Cellars zin that I tried, the Iron Horse Chardonnay ($60), 2005 Drouhin Chablis ($40),  and a Rhone style red blend, the Four Vines Peasant ($55).  I really enjoyed the Peasant at the Four Vines Wine Dinner I attended at Summer Winter last month.

An interesting and reasonably priced wine list is enough to recommend Summer Winter to you.  Combined with fresh, innovative and tasty food, it's a must visit if you find yourself in the Boston area.  It's especially welcomed to those of us living outside the city to be able to go to a restaurant of this caliber without heading into Boston or Cambridge. 

*all prices shown are per bottle on  the Summer Winter wine list.  Though the mark-up is quite reasonable compared to other restaurants, you could get these bottles for less at a wine shop if you can find them.

David Crowley, Gather Food Correspondent

David enjoys sharing good food and wine with family and friends.  David writes about his wine explorations and discoveries in his column, "Wine Chat", a twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials:  Food.   By day, David is the President and Founder of Social Capital Inc.