Bazin’s x Silver Oak Wine Dinner

I know what you’re thinking reading the title of this post….”But Hailey, didn’t you just graduate college? Weren’t you drinking $7 wine just a few months ago? What were you possibly doing at a wine dinner?” First of all, yes, $7 was the price of the wine that we usually celebrated with, and Yellowtail Sweet Red Roo will always have a special place in my heart.

However, my first full time job has started (hence the long absence), and along with not wearing leggings everyday I’ve tried to upgrade my life in other ways as well. So, when Zack mentioned the Silver Oak wine dinner at Bazin’s last Monday, I jumped at the chance to do something I wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell my co-workers about.

We arrived promptly at 6:30 to be greeted by Julie Bazin and Jim Futrell from Silver Oak. We grabbed a few flutes of Prosecco, an hors d’eouvre (or 7) and picked a gorgeous table by the window.

The seats filled up in a matter of seconds, which is how you know it would be a good meal, and Jim started describing the history of Silver Oak.

Silver Oak is a family owned winery, and there are actually two vineyards: one in Napa and one in the Alexander Valley. They also own Twomey Cellers, named after their mother’s maiden name! We were lucky enough to try wines from all three, and they were fantastic.

But first, the food!

Chef Patrick started us out with a fantastic appetizer of ginger-mustard shrimp with a hearts of palm salad and grilled pineapple salsa.

The shrimp were perfectly cooked, chilled, and then tossed in a tart vinaigrette with a faint heat of mustard. The smokiness of the pineapple, acid from the hearts of palm, and peppery bite of arugula was fabulous with the Sauvignon blanc it was served with.

^^^ when Zack asked me to describe the wine.. um red?

Our next course was a mushroom crusted halibut with a basmati rice cake and an heirloom tomato vinaigrette paired with a pinot noir.

We sat next to two guys who loved that Chef chose to put a red wine and a fish together, and I couldn’t agree more. Out of all the wines, this was Zack and my favorite!

The third course was one that combined some of the most heavenly ingredients into a perfect plated dish: truffles, beef tenderloin, and ravioli.

A beautifully pink piece of tenderloin stood in a puddle of red wine demi, and there was a little short rib ricotta ravioli perched on top that was draped in the dreamiest truffle cream sauce. The broccolini added a little color and crunch and balanced out the richness of the flavors.

For the vegetarians, which I was that evening, Patrick whipped up a creamy vegetable risotto that even made my carnivore boyfriend envious. Bursts of juicy cherry tomato, a crunch from fried garlic chips, and beautifully al dente rice was the perfect plate to soak up all the wine.

By this point we were enjoying the two different Cabernets. The one from Alexander Valley was Zack and my favorite, since it was “a little less tannic on the palate” (words borrowed from Zack).

Bruce was working, so of course him and Zack had to engage in partner wine tastings… At this point I quickly excused myself to check out dessert!

And oh am I glad I did. Have you ever seen such a spectacular cake?!?

It was a cornmeal-rosemary cake with a lemon glaze and a red grape compote. Absolutely ridiculous.

I love the texture that the cornmeal gave the cake, and the sticky sweet glaze was divine with fresh rosemary. It’s 100% a combination I want to recreate soon!

^^^ our one attempt at a photo

At the end of the meal, Patrick gave a speech and made sure to thank his staff for turning out 100 incredible plates at a time, which I thought was awesome.

By this time I was in a food and wine coma (the most deadly kind) and so ready for bed. It was an amazing evening and makes me think that $7 wine is forever a thing of the past.

Thank you Patrick and Julie for the best Monday night I’ve ever had!