#173 - Scallops & Tuna With Three Wines

Mrs. Ney threw down the gauntlet a few months ago and demanded that the world "Beat THAT!" when we had the best tuna preparation we've ever had.

Last night's meal, a dinner with a co-worker, actually came close.

Same Moroccan-inflected tuna. It didn't beat the previous one but this meal's joy came from everything else we had with it, how all of it complimented each other and how it built to the tuna.

In the end, the tuna became just one of three elements that we'll be revisiting again and soon.

Pre-meal opening: Spicy carrot purée with Seeduction bread, Kerrygold butter and rose petal jam

Wine: NV René Geoffroy Rosé de Saignée Champagne ($60 - WDC)

Same bread and accoutrements as the last tuna meal. Best bread ever. All raw dark grains without being too raw. Creamy, rich butter and floral-as-all-get-out jam.

But the love came from the Moroccan-spiced carrot purée. Cumin, ginger, cinnamon and harissa blended into puréed carrots. Tasted creamy without any cream added. Silky and more delicious with each subsequent bite. We fell in love quickly using the Seeduction bread to dip.

The René Geoffroy is 100% pinot noir (disgorged July, 2010) somewhat disappointed. Only the second rosé de saignée we've had with the Christmas Larmandier-Bernier being the first. That might have been some of the problem. Having only two and the first being that, a comparison inevitably came into play. Nice, small, fine bubbles. Light roses and strawberries notes dominated with a solid red berry core supporting everything but it came off a touch flat, missing an acid lift. Didn't wow us with its depth and concentration like the Larmandier-Bernier did.

And with the Love in the Bowl that was the carrot purée, it became an afterthought.

Appetizer: Scallops with a pea purée and pancetta

Wine: NV Gruet Brut Rosé ($15 - Binny's)

The dinner guest has a partner that doesn't eat seafood of any kind so we seafooded him up. Two scallops, seared beautifully with a nice touch of sweetness to them that sang with the subtle, spring-like greenness of the pea purée. Great hit of dark, charred meatiness from the pancetta without being too smoky. If someone ever asked what was the most balanced bite of food I've had recently, this might be it. Came off purposeful, thoughtful and nuanced following the carrot purée as the meal felt like it was building properly. More of a darker carrot purée lifted up and cleansed by an intense freshness with the pancetta serving as a bridge.

The Gruet Brut Rosé, compared with the Geoffroy, showed more liveliness with a crisp and bright core. Not a technically better wine, tasting more like a very pretty $15 brut rosé, but more wanted, more playful. Cherry and citrus notes with a bit of cream dancing around and propped up by some great acid. More bright notes that played into the scallop preparation more effectively than the Geoffroy and the carrot purée did.

Entrée: Moroccan-inflected tuna with blood oranges and black olives with an arugula and pomegranate salad

Wine: 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

Some differences with the January tuna (recipe there). This one had less of a pink and Szechuan peppercorn presence due to the fact that we didn't know the level of peppercorn tolerance our guest had. Still utterly present, just not at the level we like. Medium-rare tuna that Mrs. Ney thought could have come up to room temperature a little more before searing, but nonetheless mimicked almost identically what happened in January. Hits of peppercorn, cardamom and coriander mingling beautifully with the blood oranges and black olives. The joy comes in the fact that one bite brings 20 different tastes that vacillate between dark and bright, deep and light while all of it coming off entirely clean. Still the best tuna ever.

Served, like in January, with the 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir. Started to get a little bit of palate fatigue but still picked up similar notes as last time. Not quite fully open for business yet but still had that signature Ponzi floral, leaves and black tea notes backed up by cherry and plum fruit. Forest floor moss and tobacco interlaced throughout with the acid allowed everything to come through in a pure way. Even pleasantly gnarly at times.

Pause-worthy again with the tuna. A match made in heaven. It was a new food and wine pairing place for us last time and brought all of the same joy this time.

Finished the meal with dessert brought by our guest. Poached pears done in apple cider, orange and lemon zest with mascarpone and orange zest on the side. Served with Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, a spirit that's been sitting in the pantry that we forgot about. Delicious stuff and a great finish.

Pairing: 94 The food was the focus but the wine, especially finishing with the Ponzi, played a welcome role

In fact, when it came to the food and wine goodness, it was mostly the Ponzi with the tuna.

We liked what the Gruet offered, bringing a different, more red-fruit freshness to the scallops, but as a technical pairing, it wasn't the enhancement we necessarily wanted. More nice to have around than great match.

And the Geoffroy just didn't stand a chance with the loveliness that was the carrot purée.

Nothing new in terms of a pairing presented itself but that Ponzi and tuna, oh that Ponzi and tuna. Always, everyday and often. It saved the food and wine night.

In the end, with this much completeness and complimentary flavors in the food, we didn't really care that the first two wine selections didn't live up.

We ate too well to care.

#155 - Moroccan-Inflected Tuna With Two '08 Oregon Pinots

"Beat THAT!" Mrs. Ney says to her future self.

"Not likely!" says me.

Best tuna we've ever had.

If this tuna showed up on a 20-course tasting menu, it would the one course I'd remember three years later. Except we each had six full ounces of the stuff sitting in front of us.

As an overall meal, with both wines to go back and forth, this meal easily sits in the top two or three in the few years.

And, for everything, on the plate and in the glass, it cost a grand freakin' total of about $80.

Don't need a Groupon for that!

Food: Moroccan-inflected tuna with blood oranges and gaeta olives, arugula and pomegranate salad and Seeduction bread, Kerrygold butter and rose petal jam

The recipe:

Tuna: 12 oz piece: crusted with:

(1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

3/4 tsp pink peppercorns

3/4 tsp szechuan peppercorns

seeds from 5 cardamom pods

1/2 tsp fleur de sel

4 thin slices peeled ginger,

mashed all together in mortar & pestle - from Around My French Table)

Blood orange suprèmes and gaeta olives (shallot, thyme, cumin seeds, walnut oil)

Arugula, parsley & pomegranate seeds salad (walnut oil, salt, black pepper)

Seeduction bread, Kerrygold butter, French rose petal jam

Tuna seared rare and placed on top of the blood orange and olive salad. The first bite was one of the purest taste experiences (don't care how pretentious that sounds) I've ever had. Every flavor on the tuna and under it came through so balanced, so beautifully seasoned, so pause-worthy that words aren't gonna do it. Right away, the cardamom and peppercorn hit freshened, brightened and lightened by the blood orange juice, cleaned by the ginger and then brought back to a savory, darker depth of deliciousness by the gaeta olives. Seemed like 12 levels of flavor in every bite without being murky or muddled and nothing obscuring the tuna in the least. Great acid, pretty floral notes from the spices. Can't say anything more.

Best. Tuna. Ever.

Accompanied by Seeduction bread from Whole Foods. Played an important role with its rustic, dark bread edge, leveling out the entire meal with country, sort of unrefined presence brought to something more refined by quality Kerrygold butter. But the rose petal jam, adding yet another floral component, seemed integral, enforcing again what we want: bright, clean food with a strong acid backbone, the protein strongly driven by herbs and spices that serve as the primary lifter and the supporting cast being different levels of diversion and cut while tying into everything else.

Who doesn't? That's textbook. But in the details, this meal is the First example in our food world.

Arugula, parsley and pomegranate seed salad to finish.

Wine: 2008 Ponzi Willamette Valley ($33 - Binny's) and 2008 Ken Wright Shea Vineyard 375ml ($22 - Binny's)

Two of the best noses on wines I've smelled in a couple years at least. The complexity on both of these wines coming out of the glass...wow! Both felt like the first real experience we've had with the 2008 Oregon vintage and, if these wines are any indication, all the hype is warranted.

A return to the 2008 Ponzi after having it two months ago with ridiculously good lamb and saffron risotto. Didn't show particularly well then but it's showing much better now. Popped and poured then. Opened about 30 minutes before dinner this time.

Plum, roses, forest floor, a touch of tobacco and lipstick on the nose. On the palate, the plum transitioned to a more muted black cherry with a touch of blueberry juice. Very muted, actually. All secondary flavors right now, showing a big rose petal component with everything going right into the mid-palate. Tea and cola notes to finish. Bitter tea leaves, actually, that weren't unwelcome. Flat-ish cola after about two hours open, which may mitigate a long decant in the future.

Again, and consistent with we utterly love about Ponzi, a ton of roses and the very distinct, bright, lithe and lifting acid that only comes from Ponzi. We'll know Ponzi acid blind until the day we die. It's why we capital-L love it.

Great wine and it's only going to get better. Much better.

But the Ken Wright beat it from a technical sense, helped along by its half-bottleness. Massive wet tobacco nose intermingled with an spiced orange peel, loam-potting soil, piles of rose petals and fuzzy blackberry. All of that followed on the palate and all of that danced around beautifully, all in a streamlined and seamless structure, finishing with the tobacco again going right into a graceful touch of a flower bundle. Softer acid than the Ponzi. Dark with brighter flecks on occasion. Just so well-made and gorgeous. Starts out big but goes right into a perfect medium-bodied weight halfway down. Pretty. Changed. Flowers everywhere. And I've always love tobacco notes but I can't think of a time when I enjoyed it this much.

Odd that this was the first red Ken Wright we've had since the start of this blog. This will be changing soon.

In the end, what jumped out though, were the floral notes and acid in both wines and how they fit so perfectly with the food.

Pairing: 99 Made me think about life changes, like needing an apartment with a patio

Because if this meal were eaten on a late July day, at dusk as a searing day heat gave way to a surprisingly calm, cooling night, outside with friends, I might have wet my pants a little.

The cumin in the blood orange-gaeta olive blend under the tuna fit like a glove with the Ken Wright and the coriander in the crust blew up with the Ponzi. Each, all and everything showing so much purity and love in the glass and on the plate.

That's it. Everything tasted like so much Warm Huggy Love.

#134 - Pistachio-Crusted Lamb Rack And Saffron Risotto With '08 Ponzi Pinot Noir

On a night when Mrs. Ney, due to a cold, could only taste about 40% of the flavors on the plate, it was unfortunate that we had on said plate the best lamb I've ever had.

And I've checked, thought about it and consulted the lamb gods.

I don't even think it's close.

Ferran Adria recipes will do that.

Food: Pistachio-crusted rack of lamb wrapped in pancetta with saffron risotto and mâche salad with mustard vinaigrette

Rare-to-medium-rare rack of lamb that looked pretty friggin' gorgeous.

But what made this lamb different from other pistachio/pancetta lamb was that the pistachio and pancetta fat actually dripped deep into the meat during the roasting process. Very deep.

So deep that a bite of lamb took on a pistachio-dripped succulence and ended with a unctuous pancetta fat pan drippings finish. All lamb at its core but the three flavors - along with rosemary, thyme and black pepper in the pistachio paste - vacillated back and forth, each alternately taking the stage but never overpowering any of the other flavors. Kaleidoscope-y is the best way to describe it and I've never had anything like it. In a different way, it reminded me of the first time I ate the sous-vide antelope at Schwa. Entirely new and entirely memorable. Might be the best bite of food I've had this year.

Coupled perfectly with saffron-pistachio risotto, a side dish that we've only had with Heredia white over the last year. Very al dente but the starch bled into the pistachio beautifully, picking up a nutty goopy quality that marched right in line with the pistachio lamb paste. Not too matchy-matchy in the least, different enough to serve as an advantage rather than dulling down the plate.

Mâche salad with mustard vinaigrette to finish.

Sucked balls that Mrs. Ney couldn't get the whole effect, especially as these flavors are very dear to her heart. Instead, we were left with me getting all orgasmic and proclamation-y and Mrs. Ney having to settle with the knowledge that it looked gorgeous and the 40% she could taste certainly satisfied.

Wine: 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($30 - Binny's)

Ponzi's estate bottling, just released in Chicago, from a spectacular vintage (WS - 95-100), culled from various Ponzi plots and generally serves as our default pinot noir. We love it. I remember visiting San Francisco a few years ago where Mrs. Ney had a glass of Ponzi at the Ferry Building. I took a sip and was in love with the glorious leafy quality wrapped in cherries from it. Never had anything like it. Personally, I've been chasing that first sip whenever we have Ponzi, which is my issue not Ponzi's, but it's always, every time, deliciousness in the glass.

The 2008 isn't ready. No decant. All cherry Dr. Pepper. All of it. Tasted like a cherry Dr. Pepper without the sappy sweetness. Cola, a bit of tea and cherry Dr. Pepper extract.

Reticent fruit showing much darker fruit than in the past, more blueberry, mulberry and blackberry dancing together with a large, darkish cherry note desperately wanting to take the stage.

Big core that's not showing any definition or delineation right now, no expression outside of an inkling that it's going to be a mammoth one compared to other recent Ponzi estate bottlings. A black tea quality wants to peak out as well but I only got a precursor of it.

Mostly, what did show was the beautifully bright and vibrant acid that's typical of Ponzi pinot noir. Gonna have to wait to see where it goes. We've only drank 2008 Oregon pinots on the lower-end of the quality scale to mixed results but the bottlings of the bigger names look like it's going to take a few years to see how they are.

People on the internets have had success with decanting. We'll probably be drinking a case of the 2008 Ponzi's so I started with no decant as a baseline and we'll go from there.

Pairing: 94 Just for the food! ... and having wine that didn't get in the way

I don't even know if our favorite Oregon pinot, the Angela, would have lived up to the lamb. Certainly would have most likely been great but this was stupid-good lamb. I don't know.

But the Ponzi showed best with the lamb, less so with the risotto and hollow and weird with the greens.

Mostly, the Ponzi didn't stop me from wanting wine after a bite. It complimented the food mostly by letting the lamb and risotto continue to be so darn good. It stayed out of the way while offering a little something extra with its pretty acidity.

Hold the '08 Ponzi for a year or decant the hell out of it. Even after being open for about two hours, it barely budged.