71 Wines in Three Days - Day Two!

This is the second installment of my 71 Wines in Three Days post…if you haven’t read Part One yet, check it out here.

The day began bright and early for breakfast. I think it’s fair to say that after trying 28 wines the day before, many of us were hurting a bit.  And what better way to get over the pain than a nice, big Mexican Ranchero breakfast that I will never forget.  We were all invited into the kitchen where we were given Mexican hot chocolate which included a shot of tequila mixed in (sounds insane but it worked and tasted amazing). 

Nothing says ‘hangover cure’ like a bit of tequila at 9am!  

Chef Charlie Palmer invited everyone to make themselves at home, grab a plate and basically go station to station filling up our plates with what was the best breakfast I have ever had.  One of the kitchen staff even had their Mom hand making tortillas and stuffing them with a spicy shredded chicken.  Add to that Huevos Rancheros (with Executive Sous Chef Lupe Avila’s own ranchero sauce), Chilaquiles (my fav of the morning), churros and so much more – I was in heaven.  Of course, we were also given glasses of Pol Roger Brut Champagne.  It was an awesome experience to get a behind the scenes look at the kitchen of a Michelin Star restaurant.

Fresh tamales anyone?

Wine count so far: 29

After a nap, we headed down to lunch which was Spanish Tapas.  The cool part about this session was that we were taught how to blend the wines of Priorat from Michael Mondavi.  Aside from the wine blending and sampling, one of my favorite parts of this meal was the Serrano ham that they shaved off the ham hock right in the dining room.  It was simply outstanding.  

Best Serrano ham I've ever had!

We tried another six wines during this meal, five being 100% unblended wines that we used to make our own blends.  I quite liked the Carignan and I’m afraid I used a fair bit of that for sampling instead of blending.   What I thought was very cool about this afternoon aside from the food and the wine, is the fact that Michael Mondavi took the time to come around to every table and talk with each of us about wine, share family anecdotes and he was just a friendly and amazing story teller. 

Takes me back to high school chemistry, minus the alcohol of course!

Wine count so far: 35

After another rest after lunch, we got ready for dinner.  There was much buzz leading up to that night's meal and it was not unwarranted.  The theme this evening was a Spanish Alta Cocina Dinner and included seven courses paired with a total of 21 wines! 

Click on the image to enlarge and see the menu

All of the courses were amazing, but I particularly enjoyed the paella and not just because it tasted so good, but because they cooked it outside over an open flame.  I snuck out during dinner and spent some time with Executive Chef Vincent Pouessel and talked charcoal and wood fire cooking.  Chef Pouessel likes to use mesquite wood because he likes the smell and also because it burns evenly with very little of the popping and crackling you get from some other woods.  Kudos to Executive Chef Pouessel and Executive Sous Chef Lupe Avila who worked the fire and cooked the paella outside, in Las Vegas, in the summer… suffice to say I think it was hotter outside than it was in the kitchen!  And you could really taste the smokiness in the result, something that would have been lacking had they cooked it in the kitchen without the open wood fire.

Paella cooked over a mesquite fire

Wine count so far: 56

Stay tuned for Part 3 which involves a bouillabaisse breakfast (!?!?), a Swiss fondue, grilled ribs and of course – more wine!