Amanti Vino’s wine vs. beer competition dinner on March 23 at the Woman’s Club of Upper Montclair wasn’t the buttoned-up affair I expected. Thankfully. Au contraire, it was casual, friendly, fun and partying on a Tuesday night seemed positively decadent. The five-course dinner was punctuated by friendly and comical sparring between the master wine wonk (Fred Dexheimer) and the master beer brewer (Garrett Oliver). Between the two of them, who were vying for top dog for their wine and beer pairings, they had Amanti Vino staff (Will, Amelia, Thad, Wes and Tim) busy pouring a selection of eight micro-crafted beers and seven wines produced in countries from Greece to Uruguay.
The pairings were going fine, and our table we even got seconds of the fantastic Robert Sinskey Vin Gris (Napa). But we all almost lost it at the cheese course, which featured three cheeses each paired with a brew and a cru! That’s right, the cheese plate brought 6 more glasses. Not that we didn’t enjoy it.
I went to the dinner thinking, I’ll just humor Amanti Vino owner Sharon Sevrens, because really, BEER pairings? To my astonishment, the fine brews provided by Brooklyn Brewery and picked by Oliver were on target complementing the meal. Our table, for the most part, favored the brew pairings over the wine. Several of the beers, complex and spicy, are only available at brewery headquarters in Brooklyn.
Ariane Duarte brought CulinAriane to the Women’s Club; she is consistently hitting out of the ballpark with her creative fare, and that evening was no exception. Her culinary team served up halibut crudo, herb crusted salmon, and barbecue-spiced flank steak.The final course, a flourless chocolate torte topped with pink peppercorn whipped cream paired with Tannat dessert wine from Uruguay “Vinedo de los Vientos Alcyone” was a true food moment…a perfect storm my tastebuds will never forget.
Sevrens pulled in her Montclair connections to pull off the fundraiser which made $8,000 for World Cares Center assisting Montclair connected charities EDEYO and Lamp For Haiti. World Cares Center director Lisa Orloff is married to Brooklyn Brewery owner Eric Ottaway; they live in Montclair. Ottaway generously donated all the brew. Wine wholesaler and former Montclairion Tom Byrnes flew in from his new home in Aix-en-Provence for the event, and donated most of the wines on the menu.Tallmadge Cheeses of Upper Montclair contributed to the menu as well. And while there were clear winners by course, when the ballots were counted, there was an even tie for Cru vs. Brew.
Love the pic on the home page. Those two publicity hounds remind me of Fraser v. Ali.
Or the illustration on the box of a board game from the 70s that had Rockefeller arm wrestling Karl Marx. Does anybody remember that?
what fabulous pictures–great slide show! this looks like a wonderful event: a big round of applause to everyone involved.
Great pictures and what a fun time. Amanti Vino knows how to throw an event and rally for a cause!
I agree with the headline–it was definitely a tie.