It came from Portland, Oregon, as many good food and wine concepts do. The concept of a handful of highly skilled, and super competitive, sommeliers competing to choose the best pairings with a meal is a great one. And it went over to great success during the Dueling Sommelier Competition in Portland last year.
So the concept finally hit SF last week at the Fifth Floor. The competition featured Caterina Mirabelli of District, Emily Wines of the Fifth Floor and David Glancy of the Professional Culinary Institute, a wine school near San Jose. They actually sat and dinned with guests, which was a surprise and fun as you could talk to them about their pairings.
Glasses at the ready.
Caterina's were my far my favorite, but I tend to be admittedly very instinctively biased toward all things Italian. I loved the Luigi Francoli smoky grappa di Riesling with the sturgeon and the Pio Cesare "Piodelei" 2005 Chardonnay with the crab soup. Part of what was so fun about the evening is that all three had to combine a couple of cocktail or beer pairings as well. Emily's choice of the Chateau Rayas "La Pialade" Côtes du Rhône, with the pork belly, might have been my favorite overall wine of the evening. I also really liked her choice of the Kasteel Cru Lager beer with the frog legs course. David's fino Sherry cocktail was also a good pairing with the sturgeon.
The dinner, the concept and the company were all a lot of fun. I hope there will be more competitions to the series.
Cheers,
Liza the Wine Chick
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