We live in a very small town. Not as small as the town I grew up in, but by most people's standards, Guerneville is a very very small town. We have a handful of restaurants and even fewer good ones, a used bookshop, a hair salon, some art galleries, a coffee shop, and my little cafe/market. So when Daniel and I decide that a date is much needed, Guerneville's options for dining get tiresome very quickly. Fortunately, just around the corner, tucked away on the other side of the Russian River is a fancy fancy hotel and restaurant, Applewood Inn, that just so happens to have a Michelin Star.
As one would expect, a Michelin Star in the touristy heart of the Russian River Valley means you can charge a whole lot for your dishes and your dining room will be bustling almost every night. Good for them! And lucky for us, they have a night for locals, showing Guerneville some love. Every Sunday night Applewood offers a three course meal for $30, and corkage is waived if you bring a Russian River Valley wine.
Every week I check in on the menu that is posted online, and this past Sunday's looked superb. Garden lettuces with chevre, pistachios and apples, followed by crispy duck confit with lentils and fennel salad? This is a wine lovers dream meal, and oh we are wine lovers.
To drink with the duck, we had to bring Pinot Noir. There are few pairings that are as classic and perfect as duck and Pinot Noir. But which Pinot? We decided upon Copain to get around paying corkage (even if it isn't Russian River fruit, they waive it for us - working in the industry has plenty of perks here). But Copain has a number of Pinot Noirs, each bottle with its own personality. We wanted something with more structure and body, a wine that could stand up to the flavorful and fatty duck.
We chose the 2009 Kiser "En Bas," one of Copain's single vineyard designate Pinots. I've found all of Copain's Pinots to be lovely - very well balanced and exceptionally delicious - but the ones from the Kiser vineyard in Anderson Valley are particularly pretty. Besides, we're running low on our stock, so we had to revisit this wine to decide if we wanted to purchase more. The '09 "En Bas" needed to decant, so we sipped it slowly and let the flavors unravel over the course of a long meal. Notes of ripe cherries, fig and raspberry mingle nicely with a soft woodiness and subtle warm spices. Think clove and cinnamon and allspice. This wine is a beautiful garnet color and is light on the palate, but has a density of robust flavors, which paired wonderfully with the huckleberry sauce that moistened the duck and flavored the lentils. The bright fruitiness of the sauce contrasted the richness of the duck meat, and the wine captured all of those elements in one simple sip.
I took a picture of the duck confit, but honestly, their plating on this one was not that exciting nor pretty. Best that you just imagine a gorgeous plate of duck and lentils and fennel and leave it at that. They did much better with the salad course, which was fantastic and looked appetizing.
Turns out we really like the '09 "En Bas" and probably should snatch a few more before the vintage sells out. I'll add that to the to-do list. And maybe you should too.
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